Critical Contrast: Petrofac (OTCMKTS:POFCY) vs. ProPetro (NYSE:PUMP)

Petrofac (OTCMKTS:POFCY) and ProPetro (NYSE:PUMP) are both small-cap energy companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, risk, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends and earnings.

Volatility and Risk

Petrofac has a beta of 2.88, indicating that its stock price is 188% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ProPetro has a beta of 0.75, indicating that its stock price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Petrofac and ProPetro, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Petrofac	0	0	0	0	0.00
ProPetro	1	4	4	0	2.33

ProPetro has a consensus target price of $12.67, indicating a potential upside of 23.52%. Given ProPetro’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe ProPetro is more favorable than Petrofac.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Petrofac and ProPetro”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Petrofac	$2.50 billion	0.00	-$505.00 million	N/A	N/A
ProPetro	$1.44 billion	0.74	-$137.86 million	($0.17)	-60.32

ProPetro has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Petrofac.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

84.7% of ProPetro shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.6% of ProPetro shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Petrofac and ProPetro’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Petrofac	N/A	N/A	N/A
ProPetro	-1.31%	-0.06%	-0.04%

Summary

ProPetro beats Petrofac on 7 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Petrofac

Petrofac Limited designs, builds, manages, and maintains infrastructure for the energy industries in the United Kingdom, Algeria, Thailand, Oman, Kuwait, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, the Netherlands, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Engineering & Construction (E&C); Asset Solutions; and Integrated Energy Services (IES). The E&C segment provides onshore and offshore engineering, procurement, construction, installation, and commissioning services. The Asset Solutions segment offers concept, feasibility, and front-end engineering design services, as well as manages and maintains onshore and offshore operations. The IES segment focuses on delivering value from the existing asset portfolio. The company was founded in 1981 and is based in St Helier, Jersey.

About ProPetro

ProPetro Holding Corp. operates as an integrated oilfield services company. The company provides hydraulic fracturing, wireline, cementing, and other complementary oilfield completion services to upstream oil and gas companies in the Permian Basin. ProPetro Holding Corp. was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Midland, Texas.