Critical Analysis: California Resources (CRC) versus Its Rivals

California Resources (NYSE:CRC) is one of 1,051 public companies in the “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its competitors? We will compare California Resources to similar businesses based on the strength of its analyst recommendations, valuation, dividends, profitability, institutional ownership, earnings and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for California Resources and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
California Resources	1	2	9	1	2.77
California Resources Competitors	6007	27072	40971	2431	2.52

California Resources currently has a consensus target price of $73.78, indicating a potential upside of 54.23%. As a group, “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” companies have a potential upside of 26.66%. Given California Resources’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe California Resources is more favorable than its competitors.

Profitability

This table compares California Resources and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
California Resources	-18.11%	9.56%	4.29%
California Resources Competitors	-455.75%	19.43%	6.71%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares California Resources and its competitors top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
California Resources	$3.67 billion	$363.00 million	-8.44
California Resources Competitors	$10.92 billion	$5.51 billion	-1.14

California Resources’ competitors have higher revenue and earnings than California Resources. California Resources is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Dividends

California Resources pays an annual dividend of $1.62 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. California Resources pays out -28.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” companies pay a dividend yield of 9.0% and pay out -134.5% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. California Resources has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. California Resources lags its competitors as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Volatility & Risk

California Resources has a beta of 0.98, suggesting that its stock price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, California Resources’ competitors have a beta of -3.76, suggesting that their average stock price is 476% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

97.8% of California Resources shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 30.8% of shares of all “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” companies are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of California Resources shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 15.3% of shares of all “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

California Resources competitors beat California Resources on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

About California Resources

California Resources Corporation is an independent energy company focused on developing and producing oil and natural gas in California. Its operations include exploration, production and management of energy resources, with products that include crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids. The company was formed in 2014 when it separated from Occidental Petroleum. Its activities are concentrated in California, where it operates across several major oil-producing regions. In 2024, California Resources completed its acquisition of Aera Energy, expanding its California operations.