Critical Contrast: PEDEVCO (NYSE:PED) vs. Gran Tierra Energy (NYSE:GTE)

PEDEVCO (NYSE:PED) and Gran Tierra Energy (NYSE:GTE) are both small-cap energy companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, earnings and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for PEDEVCO and Gran Tierra Energy, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
PEDEVCO	0	1	1	1	3.00
Gran Tierra Energy	0	3	1	0	2.25

PEDEVCO currently has a consensus price target of $1.50, indicating a potential upside of 148.67%. Gran Tierra Energy has a consensus price target of $5.45, indicating a potential downside of 4.39%. Given PEDEVCO’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe PEDEVCO is more favorable than Gran Tierra Energy.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

3.3% of PEDEVCO shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 31.7% of Gran Tierra Energy shares are held by institutional investors. 70.4% of PEDEVCO shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 6.5% of Gran Tierra Energy shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares PEDEVCO and Gran Tierra Energy’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
PEDEVCO	6.57%	1.58%	1.39%
Gran Tierra Energy	7.17%	11.36%	3.28%

Volatility & Risk

PEDEVCO has a beta of 0.35, meaning that its stock price is 65% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Gran Tierra Energy has a beta of 0.43, meaning that its stock price is 57% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares PEDEVCO and Gran Tierra Energy”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
PEDEVCO	$33.25 million	1.73	$260,000.00	$0.11	5.48
Gran Tierra Energy	$614.07 million	0.33	-$6.29 million	($2.51)	-2.27

PEDEVCO has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Gran Tierra Energy. Gran Tierra Energy is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than PEDEVCO, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

PEDEVCO beats Gran Tierra Energy on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About PEDEVCO

PEDEVCO Corp., an oil and gas company, focuses on the acquisition, development, and production of oil and natural gas assets in the United States. It holds interests in the Permian Basin asset covering an area of approximately 22,721 net acres located in New Mexico; and D-J Basin asset covering an area of approximately 19,214 net acres located in Wyoming. The company is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

About Gran Tierra Energy

Gran Tierra Energy Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the exploration and production of oil and gas properties in Colombia and Ecuador. The company was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.