Analyzing Kosmos Energy (NYSE:KOS) and Amplify Energy (NYSE:AMPY)

Amplify Energy (NYSE:AMPY) and Kosmos Energy (NYSE:KOS) are both small-cap energy companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, valuation, risk and dividends.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

42.8% of Amplify Energy shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.3% of Kosmos Energy shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.0% of Amplify Energy shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.9% of Kosmos Energy shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Amplify Energy and Kosmos Energy, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Amplify Energy	1	0	1	0	2.00
Kosmos Energy	4	4	1	0	1.67

Amplify Energy currently has a consensus target price of $9.00, indicating a potential upside of 133.46%. Kosmos Energy has a consensus target price of $2.54, indicating a potential upside of 23.44%. Given Amplify Energy’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Amplify Energy is more favorable than Kosmos Energy.

Profitability

This table compares Amplify Energy and Kosmos Energy’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Amplify Energy	12.48%	-1.40%	-1.05%
Kosmos Energy	-27.21%	-1.67%	-0.22%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Amplify Energy and Kosmos Energy”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Amplify Energy	$263.36 million	0.61	$43.97 million	$0.51	7.56
Kosmos Energy	$1.29 billion	0.95	-$699.79 million	($1.00)	-2.06

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

Risk & Volatility

Amplify Energy has a beta of 0.26, indicating that its share price is 74% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Kosmos Energy has a beta of 0.78, indicating that its share price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Amplify Energy beats Kosmos Energy on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Amplify Energy

Amplify Energy Corp. is an independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company headquartered in Houston, Texas. The company focuses on acquiring, developing, exploiting and producing crude oil and natural gas properties in the United States. Amplify Energy’s operations have included three core areas: the Beta field and other offshore properties in Southern California, oil and gas assets in the Rockies, and producing properties in East Texas. Its activities include drilling and developing wells, operating production facilities and managing related infrastructure used to bring hydrocarbons to market.

About Kosmos Energy

Kosmos Energy Ltd. is an independent international energy company focused on exploring for and producing oil and natural gas, with an emphasis on deepwater projects. Founded in 2003, the company is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Its operations are concentrated in West Africa. Kosmos has interests in producing oil fields offshore Ghana and is involved in the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim natural gas project, which spans the maritime area between Mauritania and Senegal and is designed to produce liquefied natural gas.