Financial Contrast: Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) versus Bristow Group (NYSE:VTOL)

Bristow Group (NYSE:VTOL) and Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) are both small-cap energy companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk and earnings.

Risk & Volatility

Bristow Group has a beta of 1.23, suggesting that its stock price is 23% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Natural Gas Services Group has a beta of 0.47, suggesting that its stock price is 53% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Bristow Group and Natural Gas Services Group, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Bristow Group	0	1	3	0	2.75
Natural Gas Services Group	0	2	2	0	2.50

Bristow Group presently has a consensus target price of $60.00, suggesting a potential upside of 47.98%. Natural Gas Services Group has a consensus target price of $50.50, suggesting a potential upside of 50.36%. Given Natural Gas Services Group’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Natural Gas Services Group is more favorable than Bristow Group.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

93.3% of Bristow Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 65.6% of Natural Gas Services Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 12.8% of Bristow Group shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 3.1% of Natural Gas Services Group shares are owned by 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 Bristow Group and Natural Gas Services Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Bristow Group	6.66%	9.82%	4.45%
Natural Gas Services Group	10.81%	8.10%	3.70%

Dividends

Bristow Group pays an annual dividend of $0.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Natural Gas Services Group pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. Bristow Group pays out 14.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Natural Gas Services Group pays out 37.3% 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.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Bristow Group and Natural Gas Services Group”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Bristow Group	$1.56 billion	0.77	$129.07 million	$3.47	11.68
Natural Gas Services Group	$172.32 million	2.51	$19.93 million	$1.61	20.86

Bristow Group has higher revenue and earnings than Natural Gas Services Group. Bristow Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Natural Gas Services Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Bristow Group beats Natural Gas Services Group on 11 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Bristow Group

Bristow Group Inc. provides vertical flight solutions. The company primarily offers aviation services to integrated, national, and independent offshore energy companies and government agencies. It also provides personnel transportation, search and rescue, medevac, ad hoc helicopter, fixed wing transportation, unmanned systems, and ad-hoc helicopter services, as well as logistical and maintenance support, training services, and flight and maintenance crews. The company has a fleet of aircrafts. It has customers in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, the Dutch Caribbean, the Falkland Islands, India, Ireland, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Spain, Suriname, Trinidad, the United Kingdom, and United States. Bristow Group Inc. is based in Houston, Texas.

About Natural Gas Services Group

Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. provides natural gas compression equipment and services to the energy industry in the United States. It engineers and fabricates, operates, rents, and maintains natural gas compressors for oil and natural gas production and plant facilities. It also designs, fabricates, and assembles compressor units for rental or sale; and designs, manufactures, and sells a line of reciprocating natural gas compressor frames, cylinders, and parts. In addition, the company offers flare stacks and related ignition and control devices for the onshore and offshore incineration of gas compounds, such as hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, natural gas, and liquefied petroleum gases. Further, it provides aftermarket services for its compressor and flare sales business; and exchange and rebuild program for small horsepower screw compressors. It markets its products to exploration and production companies that utilize compressor units for artificial lift applications; and oil and natural gas exploration and production companies. Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Midland, Texas.