Head to Head Survey: Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) versus Comstock Resources (NYSE:CRK)

Comstock Resources (NYSE:CRK) and Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) are both oils/energy companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, institutional ownership, risk, profitability, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Comstock Resources and Occidental Petroleum, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Comstock Resources	2	4	2	0	2.00
Occidental Petroleum	0	8	5	1	2.50

Comstock Resources presently has a consensus price target of $9.75, suggesting a potential downside of 5.71%. Occidental Petroleum has a consensus price target of $71.94, suggesting a potential upside of 10.56%. Given Occidental Petroleum’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Occidental Petroleum is more favorable than Comstock Resources.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Comstock Resources and Occidental Petroleum’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Comstock Resources	$1.57 billion	1.93	$211.12 million	$0.22	47.00
Occidental Petroleum	$28.92 billion	1.99	$4.70 billion	$3.91	16.64

Occidental Petroleum has higher revenue and earnings than Comstock Resources. Occidental Petroleum is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Comstock Resources, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility & Risk

Comstock Resources has a beta of 0.7, indicating that its stock price is 30% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Occidental Petroleum has a beta of 1.64, indicating that its stock price is 64% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Comstock Resources and Occidental Petroleum’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Comstock Resources	4.27%	1.25%	0.48%
Occidental Petroleum	16.24%	20.63%	6.00%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

36.1% of Comstock Resources shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 88.7% of Occidental Petroleum shares are held by institutional investors. 1.5% of Comstock Resources shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Occidental Petroleum shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Occidental Petroleum beats Comstock Resources on 13 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Comstock Resources

Comstock Resources, Inc., an independent energy company, engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and production of natural gas and oil properties in the United States. Its assets are located in the Haynesville and Bossier shales located in North Louisiana and East Texas. The company was incorporated in 1919 and is headquartered in Frisco, Texas.

About Occidental Petroleum

Occidental Petroleum Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of oil and gas properties in the United States, the Middle East, and North Africa. It operates through three segments: Oil and Gas, Chemical, and Midstream and Marketing. The company's Oil and Gas segment explores for, develops, and produces oil and condensate, natural gas liquids (NGLs), and natural gas. Its Chemical segment manufactures and markets basic chemicals, including chlorine, caustic soda, chlorinated organics, potassium chemicals, ethylene dichloride, chlorinated isocyanurates, sodium silicates, and calcium chloride; and vinyls comprising vinyl chloride monomer, polyvinyl chloride, and ethylene. The Midstream and Marketing segment gathers, processes, transports, stores, purchases, and markets oil, condensate, NGLs, natural gas, carbon dioxide, and power. This segment also invests in entities. Occidental Petroleum Corporation was founded in 1920 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.