Financial Review: Africa Oil (AOIFF) versus Its Competitors

Africa Oil (OTCMKTS:AOIFF) is one of 401 publicly-traded companies in the “Oil & Gas E&P” industry, but how does it contrast to its rivals? We will compare Africa Oil to related businesses based on the strength of its risk, dividends, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Africa Oil and its rivals, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Africa Oil	0	0	0	0	N/A
Africa Oil Competitors	699	4681	8693	362	2.60

As a group, “Oil & Gas E&P” companies have a potential upside of 70.87%. Given Africa Oil’s rivals higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Africa Oil has less favorable growth aspects than its rivals.

Dividends

Africa Oil pays an annual dividend of $0.05 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. Africa Oil pays out 35.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Oil & Gas E&P” companies pay a dividend yield of 9.6% and pay out 88.0% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.

Risk and Volatility

Africa Oil has a beta of 1, suggesting that its share price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.Comparatively, Africa Oil’s rivals have a beta of 1.30, suggesting that their average share price is 30% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Africa Oil and its rivals revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Africa Oil	N/A	$87.10 million	9.29
Africa Oil Competitors	$716.89 million	$110.09 million	2.79

Africa Oil’s rivals have higher revenue and earnings than Africa Oil. Africa Oil is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares Africa Oil and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Africa Oil	N/A	-4.20%	-3.90%
Africa Oil Competitors	-12.89%	4.09%	3.10%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

19.2% of shares of all “Oil & Gas E&P” companies are owned by institutional investors. 1.0% of Africa Oil shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 25.9% of shares of all “Oil & Gas E&P” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Africa Oil rivals beat Africa Oil on 9 of the 12 factors compared.

About Africa Oil

Africa Oil Corp., together with its subsidiaries, operates as an oil and gas exploration and production company in Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. The company holds interests in producing and development assets in deep-water Nigeria, and development assets in Kenya. It also has a portfolio of exploration and appraisal assets in Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya, as well as Guyana and Senegal Guinea Bissau Joint Development Zone. The company was formerly known as Canmex Minerals Corporation and changed its name to Africa Oil Corp. in August 2007. Africa Oil Corp. was incorporated in 1983 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.