Head-To-Head Analysis: Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM) vs. Marine Petroleum Trust (NASDAQ:MARPS)

Marine Petroleum Trust (NASDAQ:MARPS) and Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM) are both energy companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, risk, dividends and earnings.

Risk & Volatility

Marine Petroleum Trust has a beta of 0.37, meaning that its share price is 63% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Viper Energy has a beta of 0.5, meaning that its share price is 50% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Marine Petroleum Trust and Viper Energy, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Marine Petroleum Trust	0	1	0	0	2.00
Viper Energy	0	1	16	1	3.00

Viper Energy has a consensus target price of $56.53, indicating a potential upside of 31.50%. Given Viper Energy’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Viper Energy is more favorable than Marine Petroleum Trust.

Dividends

Marine Petroleum Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.38 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.8%. Viper Energy pays an annual dividend of $1.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. Marine Petroleum Trust pays out 111.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Viper Energy pays out 1,169.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Marine Petroleum Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Marine Petroleum Trust and Viper Energy”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Marine Petroleum Trust	$966,849.00	8.90	$660,000.00	$0.34	12.66
Viper Energy	$2.04 billion	7.58	-$68.00 million	$0.13	330.69

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

1.8% of Marine Petroleum Trust shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.7% of Viper Energy shares are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of Viper Energy shares are held by 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.

Profitability

This table compares Marine Petroleum Trust and Viper Energy’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Marine Petroleum Trust	67.00%	69.15%	69.15%
Viper Energy	2.89%	3.43%	2.85%

Summary

Viper Energy beats Marine Petroleum Trust on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Marine Petroleum Trust

Marine Petroleum Trust, together with its subsidiary, Marine Petroleum Corporation, operates as a royalty trust in the United States. It has overriding royalty interest in oil and natural gas leases in the Central and Western areas of the Gulf of Mexico off the coasts of Louisiana and Texas. Marine Petroleum Trust was founded in 1956 and is based in Dallas, Texas.

About Viper Energy

Viper Energy, Inc. engages in the acquisition of oil and natural gas properties. It owns, acquires, and exploits oil and natural gas properties in North America. The company was founded on February 27, 2014 and is headquartered in Midland, TX.