Helix Energy Solutions Group (NYSE:HLX) & Baker Hughes (NASDAQ:BKR) Critical Comparison

Helix Energy Solutions Group (NYSE:HLX) and Baker Hughes (NASDAQ:BKR) are both energy companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation and profitability.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

91.3% of Helix Energy Solutions Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.1% of Baker Hughes shares are held by institutional investors. 6.8% of Helix Energy Solutions Group shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Baker Hughes shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Helix Energy Solutions Group has a beta of 1.11, suggesting that its share price is 11% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Baker Hughes has a beta of 0.93, suggesting that its share price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Helix Energy Solutions Group and Baker Hughes, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Helix Energy Solutions Group	1	1	2	0	2.25
Baker Hughes	1	3	18	0	2.77

Helix Energy Solutions Group presently has a consensus target price of $11.50, indicating a potential upside of 18.88%. Baker Hughes has a consensus target price of $69.14, indicating a potential upside of 7.86%. Given Helix Energy Solutions Group’s higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Helix Energy Solutions Group is more favorable than Baker Hughes.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Helix Energy Solutions Group and Baker Hughes”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Helix Energy Solutions Group	$1.29 billion	1.10	$30.83 million	$0.10	96.74
Baker Hughes	$27.73 billion	2.29	$2.59 billion	$3.13	20.48

Baker Hughes has higher revenue and earnings than Helix Energy Solutions Group. Baker Hughes is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Helix Energy Solutions Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Helix Energy Solutions Group and Baker Hughes’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Helix Energy Solutions Group	1.10%	1.82%	1.09%
Baker Hughes	11.17%	14.17%	6.24%

Summary

Baker Hughes beats Helix Energy Solutions Group on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Helix Energy Solutions Group

Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, an offshore energy services company, provides specialty services to the offshore energy industry in Brazil, the Gulf of Mexico, the East Coast of the United States, North Sea, the Asia Pacific, and West Africa regions. The company operates through four segments: Well Intervention, Robotics, Production Facilities, and Shallow Water Abandonment segments. It engages in the installation of flowlines, control umbilicals, and manifold assemblies and risers; trenching and burial of pipelines; installation and tie-in of riser and manifold assembly; commissioning, testing, and inspection activities; and provision of cable and umbilical lay, and connection services. The company also provides well intervention, intervention engineering, and production enhancement services; coiled tubing operations; inspection, repair, and maintenance of production structures, trees, jumpers, risers, pipelines, and subsea equipment; and related support services. In addition, it offers reclamation and remediation services; well plug and abandonment services; pipeline, cable and umbilical abandonment services; and site inspections. Additionally, the company offers oil and natural gas processing facilities and services; and fast response system, as well as site clearance and subsea support services. Further, it provides offshore oilfield decommissioning and reclamation, project management, engineered solutions, intervention, maintenance, repair, heavy lift, and commercial diving services. It serves independent oil and gas producers and suppliers, pipeline transmission companies, renewable energy companies, and offshore engineering and construction firms. The company was formerly known as Cal Dive International, Inc. and changed its name to Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. in March 2006. Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. was incorporated in 1979 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

About Baker Hughes

Baker Hughes Company provides a portfolio of technologies and services to energy and industrial value chain worldwide. The company operates through Oilfield Services & Equipment (OFSE) and Industrial & Energy Technology (IET) segments. The OFSE segment designs and manufactures products and provides related services, including exploration, appraisal, development, production, rejuvenation, and decommissioning for onshore and offshore oilfield operations. This segment also provides drilling services, drill bits, and drilling and completions fluids; completions, intervention, measurements, pressure pumping, and wireline services; artificial lift systems, and oilfield and industrial chemicals; subsea projects and services, flexible pipe systems, and surface pressure control systems; and integrated well services and solutions. It serves oil and natural gas companies; the United States and international independent oil and natural gas companies; national or state-owned oil companies; engineering, procurement, and construction contractors; geothermal companies; and other oilfield service companies. The IET segment provides gas technology equipment, including drivers, driven equipment, flow control, and turnkey solutions for the mechanical-drive, compression, and power-generation applications; and energy sectors, such as oil and gas, LNG operations, petrochemical, and carbon solutions. This segment also provides rack-based vibration monitoring equipment and sensors; integrated asset performance management products; inspection services; pumps, valves, and gears; precision sensors and instrumentation, and condition monitoring solutions. It serves upstream, midstream, downstream, onshore, offshore, and small and large scale customers. The company was formerly known as Baker Hughes, a GE company and changed its name to Baker Hughes Company in October 2019. Baker Hughes Company was incorporated in 2016 and is based in Houston, Texas.