Financial Contrast: ProFrac (NASDAQ:ACDC) vs. Noble (NYSE:NE)

Noble (NYSE:NE) and ProFrac (NASDAQ:ACDC) are both energy companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings and profitability.

Risk & Volatility

Noble has a beta of 0.93, meaning that its share price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ProFrac has a beta of 1.46, meaning that its share price is 46% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

68.1% of Noble shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 12.8% of ProFrac shares are held by institutional investors. 1.5% of Noble shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.2% of ProFrac 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.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Noble and ProFrac, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Noble	1	6	2	1	2.30
ProFrac	2	2	1	0	1.80

Noble currently has a consensus target price of $44.71, indicating a potential downside of 2.54%. ProFrac has a consensus target price of $5.25, indicating a potential upside of 2.94%. Given ProFrac’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe ProFrac is more favorable than Noble.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Noble and ProFrac”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Noble	$3.29 billion	2.23	$216.72 million	$0.93	49.33
ProFrac	$1.94 billion	0.48	-$369.00 million	($2.33)	-2.19

Noble has higher revenue and earnings than ProFrac. ProFrac is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Noble, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Noble and ProFrac’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Noble	4.88%	1.93%	1.18%
ProFrac	-22.83%	-45.18%	-13.61%

Summary

Noble beats ProFrac on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Noble

Noble Corp. Plc engages in the provision offshore drilling services for oil and gas industry. It focuses on a balanced fleet of floating and jackup rigs and the deployment of drilling rigs in oil and gas basins around the world. The company was founded by Lloyd Noble and Art Olson in 1921 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

About ProFrac

ProFrac Holding Corp. operates as a technology-focused energy services holding company in the United States. It operates through three segments: Stimulation Services, Manufacturing, and Proppant Production. The company offers hydraulic fracturing, well stimulation, in-basin frac sand, and other completion services and complementary products and services to upstream oil and natural gas companies engaged in the exploration and production of unconventional oil and natural gas resources. It also manufactures and sells high horsepower pumps, valves, piping, swivels, large-bore manifold systems, and fluid ends. ProFrac Holding Corp. was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Willow Park, Texas.