USA Compression Partners (NYSE:USAC) & Enerflex (NYSE:EFXT) Financial Comparison

Enerflex (NYSE:EFXT) and USA Compression Partners (NYSE:USAC) are both mid-cap energy companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, risk, institutional ownership and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Enerflex and USA Compression Partners, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Enerflex	1	1	6	1	2.78
USA Compression Partners	0	5	0	1	2.33

Enerflex currently has a consensus price target of $38.00, suggesting a potential upside of 66.08%. USA Compression Partners has a consensus price target of $29.50, suggesting a potential upside of 18.04%. Given Enerflex’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Enerflex is more favorable than USA Compression Partners.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

46.5% of Enerflex shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 47.8% of USA Compression Partners shares are held by institutional investors. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

Enerflex has a beta of 1.79, meaning that its share price is 79% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, USA Compression Partners has a beta of 0.28, meaning that its share price is 72% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Enerflex and USA Compression Partners”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Enerflex	$2.57 billion	1.09	$64.00 million	$0.58	39.45
USA Compression Partners	$1.18 billion	3.08	$111.32 million	$1.06	23.58

USA Compression Partners has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Enerflex. USA Compression Partners is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Enerflex, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

Enerflex pays an annual dividend of $0.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. USA Compression Partners pays an annual dividend of $2.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.4%. Enerflex pays out 20.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. USA Compression Partners pays out 198.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Enerflex has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Profitability

This table compares Enerflex and USA Compression Partners’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Enerflex	2.94%	13.15%	5.45%
USA Compression Partners	12.43%	179.77%	4.83%

Summary

Enerflex beats USA Compression Partners on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Enerflex

Enerflex Ltd. offers energy infrastructure and energy transition solutions to natural gas markets in North America, Latin America, and the Eastern Hemisphere. The company provides natural gas compression infrastructure, processing, and treated water infrastructure under contract to oil and natural gas customers; power generation rental solutions; custom and standard compression packages for reciprocating and screw compressor applications; re-engineering, re-configuration, and re-packaging of compressors for various field applications; integrated turnkey power generation, gas compression, processing facilities, natural gas compression, processing, and electric power solutions; after-market mechanical services and parts distribution, as well as maintenance solutions to the oil and natural gas industry, operations, and overhaul services; and equipment supply, parts supply, and general asset management. It also designs, engineers, manufactures, constructs, and installs modular natural gas processing equipment, low-carbon solutions, cryogenic systems, electric power solutions, and treated water solutions; and engages in the engineering, design, procurement, project management, and construction services for compression, process, treated water, and power generation equipment, as well as after-market service, parts, and operations and maintenance services for gas compression, processing, and treated water facilities in the region. The company was formerly known as Enerflex Systems Income Fund and changed its name to Enerflex Ltd. in January 2010. Enerflex Ltd. was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.

About USA Compression Partners

USA Compression Partners, LP provides compression services under term contracts with customers in the natural gas and crude oil industries in the United States. The company engineers, designs, operates, services, and repairs its compression units; and maintains related support inventory and equipment. It also provides compression services in various shale plays, including the Utica, Marcellus, Permian Basin, Delaware Basin, Eagle Ford, Mississippi Lime, Granite Wash, Woodford, Barnett, Haynesville, Niobrara, and Fayetteville shales. As of December 31, 2017, the company had approximately 1,799,781 horsepower in its fleet. It serves oil companies; and independent producers, processors, gatherers, and transporters of natural gas and crude oil. USA Compression GP, LLC operates as the general partner of USA Compression Partners, LP. The company was formerly known as Compression Holdings, LP, and changed its name to USA Compression Partners, LP in June 2011. USA Compression Partners, LP was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.