Financial Analysis: YPF Sociedad Anónima (NYSE:YPF) and Cheniere Energy Partners (NYSE:CQP)

Cheniere Energy Partners (NYSE:CQP) and YPF Sociedad Anónima (NYSE:YPF) are both large-cap energy companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation and institutional ownership.

Risk and Volatility

Cheniere Energy Partners has a beta of 0.31, indicating that its stock price is 69% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, YPF Sociedad Anónima has a beta of 1.28, indicating that its stock price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

46.5% of Cheniere Energy Partners shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 10.1% of YPF Sociedad Anónima shares are owned by institutional investors. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Cheniere Energy Partners and YPF Sociedad Anónima’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cheniere Energy Partners	27.31%	1,121.60%	14.59%
YPF Sociedad Anónima	3.60%	10.86%	4.20%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Cheniere Energy Partners and YPF Sociedad Anónima, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cheniere Energy Partners	5	3	1	0	1.56
YPF Sociedad Anónima	0	3	3	0	2.50

Cheniere Energy Partners currently has a consensus target price of $61.86, indicating a potential downside of 9.82%. YPF Sociedad Anónima has a consensus target price of $53.00, indicating a potential upside of 5.33%. Given YPF Sociedad Anónima’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe YPF Sociedad Anónima is more favorable than Cheniere Energy Partners.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Cheniere Energy Partners and YPF Sociedad Anónima”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cheniere Energy Partners	$11.50 billion	2.89	$2.99 billion	$5.51	12.45
YPF Sociedad Anónima	$18.45 billion	1.07	-$826.00 million	$1.90	26.48

Cheniere Energy Partners has higher earnings, but lower revenue than YPF Sociedad Anónima. Cheniere Energy Partners is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than YPF Sociedad Anónima, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Cheniere Energy Partners beats YPF Sociedad Anónima on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Cheniere Energy Partners

Cheniere Energy Partners, L.P., through its subsidiaries, provides liquefied natural gas (LNG) to integrated energy companies, utilities, and energy trading companies worldwide. The company owns and operates natural gas liquefaction and export facility at the Sabine Pass LNG Terminal located in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. It also owns a natural gas supply pipeline that interconnects the Sabine Pass LNG terminal with various interstate pipelines. The company was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas. Cheniere Energy Partners, L.P. is a subsidiary of Cheniere Energy, Inc.

About YPF Sociedad Anónima

YPF Sociedad Anónima, an energy company, engages in the oil and gas upstream and downstream activities in Argentina. Its upstream operations include the exploration, exploitation, and production of crude oil, and natural gas. The company’s downstream operations include petrochemical production and crude oil refining; transportation and distribution refined and petrochemical products; commercialization of crude oil, petrochemical products, and specialties. Its gas and power operations include transportation, commercialization, and distribution of natural gas; operation of regasification terminals; conditioning, processing, and separation of natural gas; and power generation. The company had interests in oil and gas fields. It also had a retail distribution network and retail service stations. In addition, the company owns and operates refineries, as well as maintains terminal facilities Argentine ports. Further, it participates in power generation plants; offers diesel, fertilizers, lubricants, phytosanitary products, and ensiling bags; and supplies diesel, gasoline, fuel oil, coal, asphalts, paraffin, and sulfur, CO2, decanted oil, and aromatic extract. The company was incorporated in 1977 and is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.