Venture Global (NYSE:VG) vs. Range Resources (NYSE:RRC) Critical Review

Range Resources (NYSE:RRC) and Venture Global (NYSE:VG) are both large-cap energy companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, risk and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Range Resources and Venture Global, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Range Resources	1	14	4	0	2.16
Venture Global	0	9	8	0	2.47

Range Resources presently has a consensus price target of $43.18, suggesting a potential downside of 0.40%. Venture Global has a consensus price target of $15.70, suggesting a potential upside of 7.36%. Given Venture Global’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Venture Global is more favorable than Range Resources.

Volatility and Risk

Range Resources has a beta of 0.51, meaning that its share price is 49% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Venture Global has a beta of 5.7, meaning that its share price is 470% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Range Resources pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Venture Global pays an annual dividend of $0.07 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. Range Resources pays out 14.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Venture Global pays out 8.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Range Resources has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Range Resources is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Range Resources and Venture Global”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Range Resources	$3.12 billion	3.28	$658.02 million	$2.74	15.82
Venture Global	$13.77 billion	2.61	$2.73 billion	$0.86	17.00

Venture Global has higher revenue and earnings than Range Resources. Range Resources is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Venture Global, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

98.9% of Range Resources shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of Range Resources shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 86.7% of Venture Global shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Range Resources and Venture Global’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Range Resources	21.12%	16.31%	9.29%
Venture Global	18.38%	27.96%	5.25%

Summary

Venture Global beats Range Resources on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Range Resources

Range Resources Corporation operates as an independent natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGLs), crude oil, and condensate company in the United States. The company engages in the exploration, development, and acquisition of natural gas and crude oil properties located in the Appalachian region. It sells natural gas to utilities, marketing and midstream companies, and industrial users; NGLs to petrochemical end users, marketers/traders, and natural gas processors; and oil and condensate to crude oil processors, transporters, and refining and marketing companies. The company was formerly known as Lomak Petroleum Inc. and changed its name to Range Resources Corporation in August 1998. Range Resources Corporation was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas.

About Venture Global

Venture Global has fundamentally reshaped the development and construction of liquefied natural gas production, establishing us as a rapidly growing company delivering critical LNG to the world. Our innovative and disruptive approach, which is both scalable and repeatable, allows us to bring LNG to a global market years faster and at a lower cost. We believe supplying this clean, affordable fuel promotes global energy security and is essential to meeting growing global demand. Natural gas is one of the most important resources worldwide and is required to generate reliable electricity that underpins economic development and drives industry. Once natural gas is supercooled to -260°F, it converts to liquid form and reduces to 1/600th of its original volume, enabling large quantities of natural gas to be loaded and shipped by LNG tankers. The resulting LNG can be transported to international markets that lack domestic supply, displacing more carbon intensive sources of energy such as coal, diesel, and heavy fuel oil, and serving as an integral part of a cleaner energy future. We believe our business model has demonstrated that in a competitive commodity market, lower cost and overall faster delivery wins market share. Our approach capitalizes on both of these advantages, supporting significant additional growth opportunities. Our Projects We are commissioning, constructing, and developing five natural gas liquefaction and export projects near the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana, utilizing our unique “design one, build many” approach. Each project is designed or is being developed to include an LNG facility and associated pipeline systems that interconnect with several interstate and intrastate pipelines to enable the delivery of natural gas into the LNG facility. Our five current projects are being designed to deliver a total expected peak production capacity of 143.8 mtpa, which consists of an aggregate of 104.4 mtpa expected nameplate capacity and an aggregate of 39.4 mtpa of expected excess capacity. These amounts do not account for any potential bolt-on expansion liquefaction capacity. The expected nameplate capacity of our facilities measures the minimum operating performance thresholds guaranteed by the equipment providers, and the expected excess capacity represents the additional LNG that we aim to produce above such guaranteed amounts. Although COD has not yet occurred under the post-COD SPAs for any of our projects, we have been generating proceeds from the sale of commissioning cargos at the Calcasieu Project since the first quarter of 2022, and expect to do so at each of our other projects during commissioning prior to achieving COD for the relevant project or phase of a project. Our direct subsidiary, VGLNG, which owns all of our subsidiaries, was originally established in 2013 by our founders. As part of certain corporate reorganization transactions, or Reorganization Transactions, Venture Global, Inc. was formed in 2023 and became the 100% owner of VGLNG. We are a holding company and have no direct operations. All of our business operations are conducted through our subsidiaries, including VGLNG. Our principal asset is the equity interest in VGLNG, which, together with its subsidiaries, owns substantially all of our operating assets. As a result, we are dependent on the ability of our subsidiaries to generate revenues and to make loans, pay dividends and make other payments to generate the funds necessary to meet our financial obligations and to pay dividends to stockholders, if any. Our principal executive offices are located at 1001 19th Street North, Suite 1500, Arlington, VA.