Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) and CNX Resources (NYSE:CNX) Critical Review

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) and CNX Resources (NYSE:CNX) are both mid-cap 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.

Dividends

Murphy Oil pays an annual dividend of $1.30 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.4%. CNX Resources pays an annual dividend of $0.13 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.3%. Murphy Oil pays out 132.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. CNX Resources pays out 8.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Murphy Oil has increased its dividend for 5 consecutive years. Murphy Oil is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings for Murphy Oil and CNX Resources, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Murphy Oil	2	12	1	0	1.93
CNX Resources	4	10	1	0	1.80

Murphy Oil presently has a consensus target price of $28.33, suggesting a potential downside of 4.58%. CNX Resources has a consensus target price of $32.67, suggesting a potential downside of 12.76%. Given Murphy Oil’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Murphy Oil is more favorable than CNX Resources.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

78.3% of Murphy Oil shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.2% of CNX Resources shares are held by institutional investors. 6.5% of Murphy Oil shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 3.1% of CNX Resources 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.

Risk & Volatility

Murphy Oil has a beta of 0.99, suggesting that its share price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CNX Resources has a beta of 0.56, suggesting that its share price is 44% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Murphy Oil and CNX Resources’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Murphy Oil	10.20%	5.25%	2.88%
CNX Resources	9.70%	8.93%	4.13%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Murphy Oil and CNX Resources”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Murphy Oil	$2.75 billion	1.54	$407.17 million	$0.98	30.30
CNX Resources	$2.02 billion	2.49	-$90.49 million	$1.43	26.19

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

Summary

Murphy Oil beats CNX Resources on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Murphy Oil

Murphy Oil Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an oil and gas exploration and production company in the United States, Canada, and internationally. It explores for and produces crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids. The company was formerly known as Murphy Corporation and changed its name to Murphy Oil Corporation in 1964. The company was incorporated in 1950 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

About CNX Resources

CNX Resources Corporation, an independent natural gas and midstream company, engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and production of natural gas properties in the Appalachian Basin. The company operates in two segments, Shale and Coalbed Methane (CBM). It produces and sells pipeline quality natural gas primarily for gas wholesalers. The company owns rights to extract natural gas from shale properties in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio, as well as rights to extract natural gas from other shale and shallow oil and gas formations in Illinois, Indiana, New York, and Virginia. It also owns rights to extract CBM in Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and New Mexico. In addition, the company designs, builds, and operates natural gas gathering systems to move gas from the wellhead to interstate pipelines or other local sales points; owns and operates approximately 2,600 miles of natural gas gathering pipelines, as well as various natural gas processing facilities. It also offers turn-key solutions for water sourcing, delivery, and disposal for its natural gas operations and for third parties. The company was formerly known as CONSOL Energy Inc. and changed its name to CNX Resources Corporation in November 2017. CNX Resources Corporation was founded in 1860 and is headquartered in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania.