Archrock (NYSE:AROC) and Nabors Industries (NYSE:NBR) Head to Head Analysis

Nabors Industries (NYSE:NBR) and Archrock (NYSE:AROC) are both energy companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, risk and analyst recommendations.

Profitability

This table compares Nabors Industries and Archrock’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Nabors Industries	-1.17%	-3.98%	-0.85%
Archrock	22.89%	22.33%	7.79%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Nabors Industries and Archrock, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Nabors Industries	1	5	2	0	2.12
Archrock	0	1	9	0	2.90

Nabors Industries presently has a consensus target price of $103.00, indicating a potential upside of 21.58%. Archrock has a consensus target price of $42.12, indicating a potential upside of 53.71%. Given Archrock’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Archrock is more favorable than Nabors Industries.

Volatility and Risk

Nabors Industries has a beta of 1.09, meaning that its share price is 9% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Archrock has a beta of 0.96, meaning that its share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

81.9% of Nabors Industries shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.4% of Archrock shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.3% of Nabors Industries shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.9% of Archrock shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Nabors Industries and Archrock”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Nabors Industries	$3.21 billion	0.40	$286.62 million	($4.65)	-18.22
Archrock	$1.49 billion	3.22	$322.29 million	$1.94	14.13

Archrock has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Nabors Industries. Nabors Industries is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Archrock, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Archrock beats Nabors Industries on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Nabors Industries

Nabors Industries is an international drilling contractor that provides services and technology to the oil and natural gas industry. Its operations include land-based drilling rigs and offshore platform rigs, which it supplies to exploration and production companies. The company also offers services and technologies used to plan and carry out drilling operations. These include directional drilling, measurement-while-drilling systems, wellbore placement services, and software and automation tools designed to support drilling performance.

About Archrock

Archrock, Inc. provides natural gas compression services to companies in the oil and natural gas industry. Its equipment helps move natural gas from wells through gathering systems and pipelines, supporting production and transportation. The company’s contract operations include supplying, operating and maintaining compression equipment at customer sites. Through its aftermarket services business, Archrock provides maintenance, repair and other support for compression equipment, including units it did not originally supply.