Kodiak Gas Services (NYSE:KGS) versus Core Laboratories (NYSE:CLB) Head-To-Head Comparison

Core Laboratories (NYSE:CLB) and Kodiak Gas Services (NYSE:KGS) are both energy companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings and profitability.

Dividends

Core Laboratories pays an annual dividend of $0.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.4%. Kodiak Gas Services pays an annual dividend of $1.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Core Laboratories pays out 7.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Kodiak Gas Services pays out 233.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Kodiak Gas Services has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Kodiak Gas Services is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Risk and Volatility

Core Laboratories has a beta of 1.08, indicating that its stock price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Kodiak Gas Services has a beta of 0.96, indicating that its stock price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

97.8% of Core Laboratories shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 24.9% of Kodiak Gas Services shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.3% of Core Laboratories shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Kodiak Gas Services shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Core Laboratories and Kodiak Gas Services, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Core Laboratories	0	1	1	0	2.50
Kodiak Gas Services	0	2	10	0	2.83

Core Laboratories presently has a consensus target price of $21.00, indicating a potential upside of 87.00%. Kodiak Gas Services has a consensus target price of $78.89, indicating a potential upside of 34.20%. Given Core Laboratories’ higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Core Laboratories is more favorable than Kodiak Gas Services.

Profitability

This table compares Core Laboratories and Kodiak Gas Services’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Core Laboratories	5.10%	10.03%	4.71%
Kodiak Gas Services	5.77%	11.92%	3.70%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Core Laboratories and Kodiak Gas Services”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Core Laboratories	$519.18 million	0.99	$29.67 million	$0.56	20.05
Kodiak Gas Services	$1.31 billion	4.54	$80.52 million	$0.84	69.98

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

Summary

Kodiak Gas Services beats Core Laboratories on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Core Laboratories

Core Laboratories Inc. provides reservoir description and production enhancement services and products to the oil and gas industry in the United States, and internationally. It operates through Reservoir Description and Production Enhancement segments. The Reservoir Description segment includes the characterization of petroleum reservoir rock and reservoir fluid samples to enhance production and improve recovery of crude oil and gas from its clients' reservoirs. It offers laboratory-based analytical and field services to characterize properties of crude oil and oil delivered products; and proprietary and joint industry studies, as well as services that support carbon capture, utilization and storage, geothermal projects, and the evaluation and appraisal of mining activities. The Production Enhancement segment provides services and products relating to reservoir well completions, perforations, stimulations, production, and well abandonment. It offers integrated diagnostic services to evaluate and monitor the effectiveness of well completions and to develop solutions to improve the effectiveness of enhanced oil recovery projects. The company markets and sells its products through a combination of sales representatives, technical seminars, trade shows, and print advertising, as well as through distributors. Core Laboratories Inc. was founded in 1936 and is based in Houston, Texas.

About Kodiak Gas Services

Kodiak Gas Services, Inc. operates contract compression infrastructure for customers in the oil and gas industry in the United States. It operates in two segments, Compression Operations and Other Services. The Compression Operations segment operates company-owned and customer-owned compression infrastructure to enable the production, gathering, and transportation of natural gas and oil. The Other Services segment provides a range of contract services, including station construction, maintenance and overhaul, and other ancillary time and material-based offerings. The company was formerly known as Frontier TopCo, Inc. Kodiak Gas Services, Inc. was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas.