Financial Contrast: Dorchester Minerals (NASDAQ:DMLP) versus Green Plains (NASDAQ:GPRE)

Dorchester Minerals (NASDAQ:DMLP) and Green Plains (NASDAQ:GPRE) are both small-cap energy companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, profitability, dividends and earnings.

Profitability

This table compares Dorchester Minerals and Green Plains’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Dorchester Minerals	49.84%	34.73%	33.86%
Green Plains	10.87%	23.31%	12.06%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

19.2% of Dorchester Minerals shares are held by institutional investors. 5.9% of Dorchester Minerals shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.4% of Green Plains shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Dorchester Minerals pays an annual dividend of $3.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 12.4%. Green Plains pays an annual dividend of $0.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. Dorchester Minerals pays out 170.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Green Plains pays out 19.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Risk and Volatility

Dorchester Minerals has a beta of 0.65, suggesting that its stock price is 35% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Green Plains has a beta of 1.11, suggesting that its stock price is 11% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Dorchester Minerals and Green Plains, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Dorchester Minerals	0	1	0	0	2.00
Green Plains	0	3	2	1	2.67

Green Plains has a consensus target price of $18.75, indicating a potential upside of 36.86%. Given Green Plains’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Green Plains is more favorable than Dorchester Minerals.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Dorchester Minerals and Green Plains”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Dorchester Minerals	$208.22 million	6.87	$55.25 million	$2.07	13.72
Green Plains	$1.82 billion	0.53	-$121.28 million	$2.45	5.59

Dorchester Minerals has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Green Plains. Green Plains is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Dorchester Minerals, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Dorchester Minerals beats Green Plains on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Dorchester Minerals

Dorchester Minerals, L.P. is a publicly traded limited partnership that owns oil and natural gas mineral and royalty interests. The partnership also holds overriding royalty and net profits interests in producing and undeveloped properties. Dorchester generally does not drill or operate wells. Instead, it leases its mineral interests to exploration and production companies, which develop the properties; Dorchester receives royalties and other payments tied to production and applicable agreements.

About Green Plains

Green Plains Inc. is a U.S. agribusiness and renewable fuels company that produces low-carbon biofuels and agricultural ingredients. Founded in 2004, the company operates biorefineries primarily in the Midwest, where corn is processed into fuel-grade ethanol and related products. Its co-products include distillers grains, which are used in animal feed, and corn oil, which can be used in feed and renewable fuel applications. Green Plains also works to improve the efficiency and environmental performance of its production processes and develop higher-value ingredients from agricultural materials.