W&T Offshore (NYSE:WTI – Get Free Report) and YPF Sociedad Anónima (NYSE:YPF – Get Free Report) are both energy companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, risk and analyst recommendations.
Analyst Ratings
This is a summary of recent ratings for W&T Offshore and YPF Sociedad Anónima, as provided by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| W&T Offshore | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2.00 |
| YPF Sociedad Anónima | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2.50 |
W&T Offshore presently has a consensus price target of $4.25, indicating a potential upside of 3.79%. YPF Sociedad Anónima has a consensus price target of $60.33, indicating a potential upside of 8.66%. Given YPF Sociedad Anónima’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe YPF Sociedad Anónima is more favorable than W&T Offshore.
Profitability
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| W&T Offshore | -19.32% | N/A | -2.59% |
| YPF Sociedad Anónima | 3.60% | 10.86% | 4.20% |
Risk & Volatility
W&T Offshore has a beta of 0.28, indicating that its stock price is 72% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, YPF Sociedad Anónima has a beta of 1.25, indicating that its stock price is 25% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Insider & Institutional Ownership
42.9% of W&T Offshore shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 10.1% of YPF Sociedad Anónima shares are held by institutional investors. 35.9% of W&T Offshore 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.
Valuation and Earnings
This table compares W&T Offshore and YPF Sociedad Anónima”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| W&T Offshore | $561.87 million | 1.10 | -$150.06 million | ($0.73) | -5.61 |
| YPF Sociedad Anónima | $20.59 billion | 1.06 | -$826.00 million | $1.90 | 29.22 |
W&T Offshore has higher earnings, but lower revenue than YPF Sociedad Anónima. W&T Offshore is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than YPF Sociedad Anónima, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Dividends
W&T Offshore pays an annual dividend of $0.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. YPF Sociedad Anónima pays an annual dividend of $0.14 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.2%. W&T Offshore pays out -5.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. YPF Sociedad Anónima pays out 7.3% 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. W&T Offshore is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Summary
YPF Sociedad Anónima beats W&T Offshore on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.
About W&T Offshore
W&T Offshore, Inc. engages in the production, exploration, development, and acquisition of oil and natural gas properties. It focuses its operations in the Gulf of Mexico. The company was founded by Tracy W. Krohn in 1983 and is headquartered in Houston, TX.
About YPF Sociedad Anónima
YPF Sociedad Anónima, an energy company, engages in the oil and gas upstream and downstream activities in Argentina. Its upstream operations include the exploration, exploitation, and production of crude oil, and natural gas. The company’s downstream operations include petrochemical production and crude oil refining; transportation and distribution refined and petrochemical products; commercialization of crude oil, petrochemical products, and specialties. Its gas and power operations include transportation, commercialization, and distribution of natural gas; operation of regasification terminals; conditioning, processing, and separation of natural gas; and power generation. The company had interests in oil and gas fields. It also had a retail distribution network and retail service stations. In addition, the company owns and operates refineries, as well as maintains terminal facilities Argentine ports. Further, it participates in power generation plants; offers diesel, fertilizers, lubricants, phytosanitary products, and ensiling bags; and supplies diesel, gasoline, fuel oil, coal, asphalts, paraffin, and sulfur, CO2, decanted oil, and aromatic extract. The company was incorporated in 1977 and is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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