Head-To-Head Analysis: ProPetro (NYSE:PUMP) & Nabors Industries (NYSE:NBR)

ProPetro (NYSE:PUMP) and Nabors Industries (NYSE:NBR) are both small-cap energy companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, risk and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for ProPetro and Nabors Industries, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ProPetro	1	2	8	0	2.64
Nabors Industries	0	6	2	0	2.25

ProPetro presently has a consensus target price of $16.50, indicating a potential upside of 45.12%. Nabors Industries has a consensus target price of $102.57, indicating a potential upside of 11.07%. Given ProPetro’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe ProPetro is more favorable than Nabors Industries.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares ProPetro and Nabors Industries”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
ProPetro	$1.16 billion	1.20	$820,000.00	($0.11)	-103.36
Nabors Industries	$3.21 billion	0.46	$286.62 million	$13.44	6.87

Nabors Industries has higher revenue and earnings than ProPetro. ProPetro is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Nabors Industries, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility & Risk

ProPetro has a beta of 0.77, meaning that its share price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nabors Industries has a beta of 0.98, meaning that its share price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares ProPetro and Nabors Industries’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ProPetro	-1.15%	-1.49%	-0.89%
Nabors Industries	7.64%	-7.06%	-1.45%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

84.7% of ProPetro shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 81.9% of Nabors Industries shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.5% of ProPetro shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 5.3% of Nabors Industries shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

About ProPetro

ProPetro Holding Corp. operates as an integrated oilfield services company. The company provides hydraulic fracturing, wireline, cementing, and other complementary oilfield completion services to upstream oil and gas companies in the Permian Basin. ProPetro Holding Corp. was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Midland, Texas.

About Nabors Industries

Nabors Industries Ltd. provides drilling and drilling-related services for land-based and offshore oil and natural gas wells in the United States and internationally. The company operates through four segments: U.S. Drilling, International Drilling, Drilling Solutions, and Rig Technologies. It provides tubular running services, including casing and tubing running, and torque monitoring; managed pressure drilling services; and drilling-bit steering systems and rig instrumentation software. The company also offers drilling systems comprising ROCKit, a directional steering control system; SmartNAV, a collaborative guidance and advisory platform; SmartSLIDE, a directional steering control system; and RigCLOUD, a digital infrastructure to integrate applications to deliver real-time insight into operations across the rig fleet. In addition, it operates a fleet of land-based drilling rigs and marketed platforms rigs; manufactures and sells top drives, catwalks, wrenches, drawworks, and other drilling related equipment, such as robotic systems and downhole tools; and provides aftermarket sales and services for the installed base of its equipment. Nabors Industries Ltd. was founded in 1952 and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda.