Comparing Ormat Technologies (NYSE:ORA) & Expand Energy (NASDAQ:EXE)

Ormat Technologies (NYSE:ORA) and Expand Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) are both energy companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability and risk.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Ormat Technologies and Expand Energy”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ormat Technologies	$989.54 million	9.02	$123.90 million	$2.06	70.48
Expand Energy	$12.12 billion	1.80	$1.82 billion	$13.41	6.79

Expand Energy has higher revenue and earnings than Ormat Technologies. Expand Energy is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ormat Technologies, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

95.5% of Ormat Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.9% of Expand Energy shares are held by institutional investors. 0.6% of Ormat Technologies shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Expand Energy shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Ormat Technologies and Expand Energy’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ormat Technologies	10.97%	6.61%	2.80%
Expand Energy	22.53%	10.26%	6.73%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings for Ormat Technologies and Expand Energy, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ormat Technologies	0	4	8	0	2.67
Expand Energy	1	5	11	2	2.74

Ormat Technologies presently has a consensus target price of $133.18, suggesting a potential downside of 8.27%. Expand Energy has a consensus target price of $131.45, suggesting a potential upside of 44.34%. Given Expand Energy’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Expand Energy is more favorable than Ormat Technologies.

Dividends

Ormat Technologies pays an annual dividend of $0.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.3%. Expand Energy pays an annual dividend of $2.30 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Ormat Technologies pays out 23.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Expand Energy pays out 17.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Expand Energy is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Risk & Volatility

Ormat Technologies has a beta of 0.85, suggesting that its share price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Expand Energy has a beta of 0.33, suggesting that its share price is 67% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Expand Energy beats Ormat Technologies on 13 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ormat Technologies

Ormat Technologies, Inc. engages in the geothermal and recovered energy power business in the United States, Indonesia, Kenya, Turkey, Chile, Guatemala, Guadeloupe, New Zealand, Honduras, and internationally. It operates in three segments: Electricity, Product, and Energy Storage. The Electricity segment develops, builds, owns, and operates geothermal, solar photovoltaic, and recovered energy-based power plants; and sells electricity. The Product segment designs, manufactures, and sells equipment for geothermal and recovered energy-based electricity generation; and provides services relating to the engineering, procurement, construction, operation, and maintenance of geothermal and recovered energy-based power plants. This segment serves contractors; and owners and operators of interstate natural gas pipelines, gas processing plants, and cement plants, as well as companies in other energy-intensive industrial processes. The Energy Storage segment offers battery energy storage systems and related services. Ormat Technologies, Inc. was founded in 1965 and is headquartered in Reno, Nevada.

About Expand Energy

Expand Energy Corporation is an independent natural gas producer principally in the United States. Expand Energy Corporation, formerly known as Chesapeake Energy Corporation, is based in OKLAHOMA CITY.