Helmerich & Payne (NYSE:HP) & Noble (NYSE:NE) Critical Comparison

Noble (NYSE:NE) and Helmerich & Payne (NYSE:HP) are both mid-cap energy companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, dividends and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Noble and Helmerich & Payne, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Noble	1	10	1	0	2.00
Helmerich & Payne	2	6	4	0	2.17

Noble currently has a consensus target price of $38.63, indicating a potential downside of 16.54%. Helmerich & Payne has a consensus target price of $36.20, indicating a potential upside of 1.38%. Given Helmerich & Payne’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Helmerich & Payne is more favorable than Noble.

Profitability

This table compares Noble and Helmerich & Payne’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Noble	6.60%	2.34%	1.40%
Helmerich & Payne	-7.71%	0.28%	0.12%

Dividends

Noble pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.3%. Helmerich & Payne pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Noble pays out 148.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Helmerich & Payne pays out -31.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Volatility & Risk

Noble has a beta of 1.07, meaning that its stock price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Helmerich & Payne has a beta of 0.54, meaning that its stock price is 46% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

68.1% of Noble shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.1% of Helmerich & Payne shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.2% of Noble shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 4.4% of Helmerich & Payne shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Noble and Helmerich & Payne”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Noble	$3.29 billion	2.24	$216.72 million	$1.35	34.28
Helmerich & Payne	$4.09 billion	0.87	-$163.70 million	($3.19)	-11.19

Noble has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Helmerich & Payne. Helmerich & Payne is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Noble, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Noble beats Helmerich & Payne on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Noble

Noble Corp. Plc engages in the provision offshore drilling services for oil and gas industry. It focuses on a balanced fleet of floating and jackup rigs and the deployment of drilling rigs in oil and gas basins around the world. The company was founded by Lloyd Noble and Art Olson in 1921 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

About Helmerich & Payne

Founded in 1920, Helmerich & Payne, Inc. (H&P) (NYSE: HP) is committed to delivering industry leading levels of drilling productivity and reliability. H&P operates with the highest level of integrity, safety and innovation to deliver superior results for its customers and returns for shareholders. Through its subsidiaries, the Company designs, fabricates and operates high-performance drilling rigs in conventional and unconventional plays around the world. H&P also develops and implements advanced automation, directional drilling and survey management technologies. H&P’s fleet includes 299 land rigs in the U.S., 31 international land rigs and eight offshore platform rigs.