Reviewing Geopark (NYSE:GPRK) & Magnolia Oil & Gas (NYSE:MGY)

Geopark (NYSE:GPRK) and Magnolia Oil & Gas (NYSE:MGY) are both energy companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, dividends, risk, profitability, earnings and institutional ownership.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

68.2% of Geopark shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.7% of Magnolia Oil & Gas shares are held by institutional investors. 1.5% of Geopark shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Magnolia Oil & Gas shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Geopark has a beta of 0.36, suggesting that its stock price is 64% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Magnolia Oil & Gas has a beta of 0.71, suggesting that its stock price is 29% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Geopark and Magnolia Oil & Gas’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Geopark	11.74%	36.71%	8.06%
Magnolia Oil & Gas	24.40%	16.28%	11.26%

Dividends

Geopark pays an annual dividend of $0.09 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Magnolia Oil & Gas pays an annual dividend of $0.66 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Geopark pays out 8.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Magnolia Oil & Gas pays out 38.4% 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. Geopark has raised its dividend for 3 consecutive years and Magnolia Oil & Gas has raised its dividend for 3 consecutive years.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Geopark and Magnolia Oil & Gas, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Geopark	0	2	2	0	2.50
Magnolia Oil & Gas	0	10	7	0	2.41

Geopark currently has a consensus price target of $11.50, indicating a potential upside of 8.62%. Magnolia Oil & Gas has a consensus price target of $31.42, indicating a potential upside of 14.17%. Given Magnolia Oil & Gas’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Magnolia Oil & Gas is more favorable than Geopark.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Geopark and Magnolia Oil & Gas”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Geopark	$492.52 million	1.11	$49.67 million	$1.05	10.08
Magnolia Oil & Gas	$1.31 billion	3.88	$325.25 million	$1.72	16.00

Magnolia Oil & Gas has higher revenue and earnings than Geopark. Geopark is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Magnolia Oil & Gas, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Magnolia Oil & Gas beats Geopark on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Geopark

GeoPark Limited operates as an oil and natural gas exploration and production company primarily in Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, and other Latin American countries. It engages in the exploration, development, and production of oil and gas reserves. The company was formerly known as GeoPark Holdings Limited and changed its name to GeoPark Limited in July 2013. GeoPark Limited was founded in 2002 and is based in Bogotá, Colombia.

About Magnolia Oil & Gas

Magnolia Oil & Gas Corp. engages in the acquisition, development, exploration, and production of oil and natural gas properties. It operates assets located in the Eagle Ford Shale and Austin Chalk formations in South Texas. The company was founded on February 14, 2017 and is headquartered in Houston, TX.