Contrasting Tourmaline Oil (OTCMKTS:TRMLF) and Baytex Energy (OTCMKTS:BTEGF)

Tourmaline Oil (OTCMKTS:TRMLF) and Baytex Energy (OTCMKTS:BTEGF) are both energy companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Tourmaline Oil and Baytex Energy, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Tourmaline Oil	1	5	3	1	2.40
Baytex Energy	0	2	1	0	2.33

Tourmaline Oil currently has a consensus target price of $65.00, indicating a potential upside of 47.09%. Given Tourmaline Oil’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Tourmaline Oil is more favorable than Baytex Energy.

Volatility and Risk

Tourmaline Oil has a beta of -0.21, indicating that its stock price is 121% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Baytex Energy has a beta of 2.16, indicating that its stock price is 116% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Tourmaline Oil and Baytex Energy’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Tourmaline Oil	6.05%	9.05%	6.25%
Baytex Energy	38.28%	40.85%	20.18%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

1.8% of Tourmaline Oil shares are held by institutional investors. 0.8% of Baytex Energy shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Tourmaline Oil and Baytex Energy”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Tourmaline Oil	$4.72 billion	3.64	$187.99 million	$0.72	61.38
Baytex Energy	$2.79 billion	0.91	$1.29 billion	$1.47	3.18

Baytex Energy has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Tourmaline Oil. Baytex Energy is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Tourmaline Oil, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Tourmaline Oil beats Baytex Energy on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Tourmaline Oil

Tourmaline Oil Corp. explores for and develops oil and natural gas properties in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. The company holds interests in properties located in the Alberta Deep Basin, Northeast British Columbia Montney, and the Peace River High Triassic oil complex. Tourmaline Oil Corp. was incorporated in 2008 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.

About Baytex Energy

Baytex Energy Corp. operates as an oil & gas exploration and production company. It engages in the acquisition, development and production of crude oil and natural gas in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin and in the Eagle Ford in the United States. The company was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.