Geopark (NYSE:GPRK) & Mesa Royalty Trust (NYSE:MTR) Critical Survey

Geopark (NYSE:GPRK) and Mesa Royalty Trust (NYSE:MTR) are both small-cap energy companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, institutional ownership, risk and profitability.

Volatility and Risk

Geopark has a beta of 0.41, meaning that its share price is 59% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Mesa Royalty Trust has a beta of 0.41, meaning that its share price is 59% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Geopark and Mesa Royalty Trust, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Geopark	0	2	1	0	2.33
Mesa Royalty Trust	1	0	0	0	1.00

Geopark currently has a consensus price target of $11.50, suggesting a potential downside of 0.26%. Given Geopark’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Geopark is more favorable than Mesa Royalty Trust.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Geopark and Mesa Royalty Trust”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Geopark	$492.52 million	1.21	$49.67 million	$1.47	7.84
Mesa Royalty Trust	$600,000.00	8.00	$510,000.00	$0.16	16.12

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

68.2% of Geopark shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 12.7% of Mesa Royalty Trust shares are held by institutional investors. 1.5% of Geopark shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Geopark and Mesa Royalty Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Geopark	16.00%	31.33%	7.66%
Mesa Royalty Trust	60.59%	9.17%	8.82%

Summary

Geopark beats Mesa Royalty Trust on 9 of the 13 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 Mesa Royalty Trust

Mesa Royalty Trust owns overriding royalty interests in various oil and gas producing properties in the United States. It holds interests in properties located in the Hugoton field of Kansas; and the San Juan Basin field of Northwestern New Mexico and Southwestern Colorado. The company was founded in 1979 and is based in Houston, Texas.