Contrasting Nabors Industries (NYSE:NBR) and SLB (NYSE:SLB)

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

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares SLB and Nabors Industries”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
SLB	$35.71 billion	2.12	$3.37 billion	$2.06	24.92
Nabors Industries	$3.21 billion	0.39	$286.62 million	($4.65)	-17.71

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

82.0% of SLB shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 81.9% of Nabors Industries shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of SLB shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.3% of Nabors Industries shares are owned by company 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.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SLB	8.40%	13.77%	6.80%
Nabors Industries	-1.17%	-3.98%	-0.85%

Risk and Volatility

SLB has a beta of 0.8, meaning that its stock price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nabors Industries has a beta of 1.09, meaning that its stock price is 9% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for SLB and Nabors Industries, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SLB	1	4	23	0	2.79
Nabors Industries	1	5	2	0	2.12

SLB currently has a consensus price target of $61.63, suggesting a potential upside of 20.03%. Nabors Industries has a consensus price target of $103.00, suggesting a potential upside of 25.07%. Given Nabors Industries’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Nabors Industries is more favorable than SLB.

Summary

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

About SLB

SLB (NYSE: SLB), formerly known as Schlumberger, is a global technology company serving the energy industry. Founded in 1926, the company adopted the SLB name in 2022 and provides technologies and services across the energy value chain. Its offerings include subsurface evaluation, drilling and well-construction services, production systems, and digital tools that help customers plan and manage energy projects. SLB also develops solutions for areas such as carbon capture and storage, geothermal energy, and lithium production.

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.