Head-To-Head Survey: WBI (NYSE:WBI) and Nabors Industries (NYSE:NBR)

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

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares WBI and Nabors Industries”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
WBI	$525.55 million	6.19	$11.89 million	$0.20	131.78
Nabors Industries	$3.21 billion	0.36	$286.62 million	($4.65)	-16.57

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for WBI and Nabors Industries, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
WBI	0	2	4	2	3.00
Nabors Industries	1	5	2	0	2.12

WBI presently has a consensus target price of $36.62, indicating a potential upside of 38.96%. Nabors Industries has a consensus target price of $103.00, indicating a potential upside of 33.67%. Given WBI’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe WBI is more favorable than Nabors Industries.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

81.9% of Nabors Industries shares are held by institutional investors. 50.6% of WBI shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 5.3% of Nabors Industries shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
WBI	1.19%	1.19%	0.56%
Nabors Industries	-1.17%	-3.98%	-0.85%

Volatility and Risk

WBI has a beta of 0.14, indicating that its share price is 86% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nabors Industries has a beta of 1.09, indicating that its share price is 9% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

WBI beats Nabors Industries on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About WBI

WaterBridge Infrastructure LLC is an integrated, pure-play water infrastructure company. WaterBridge Infrastructure LLC is based in HOUSTON.

About Nabors Industries

Nabors Industries is an international drilling contractor that provides services and technology to the oil and natural gas industry. Its operations include land-based drilling rigs and offshore platform rigs, which it supplies to exploration and production companies. The company also offers services and technologies used to plan and carry out drilling operations. These include directional drilling, measurement-while-drilling systems, wellbore placement services, and software and automation tools designed to support drilling performance.