PrimeEnergy (PNRG) & The Competition Critical Review

PrimeEnergy (NASDAQ:PNRG) is one of 1,051 public companies in the “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” industry, but how does it contrast to its competitors? We will compare PrimeEnergy to similar companies based on the strength of its analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, risk, earnings, dividends and institutional ownership.

Profitability

This table compares PrimeEnergy and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
PrimeEnergy	13.87%	11.47%	7.67%
PrimeEnergy Competitors	-455.75%	19.43%	6.71%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares PrimeEnergy and its competitors gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
PrimeEnergy	$189.05 million	$26.31 million	18.75
PrimeEnergy Competitors	$10.92 billion	$5.51 billion	-1.08

PrimeEnergy’s competitors have higher revenue and earnings than PrimeEnergy. PrimeEnergy is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for PrimeEnergy and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
PrimeEnergy	0	2	0	0	2.00
PrimeEnergy Competitors	6007	27075	40971	2431	2.52

As a group, “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” companies have a potential upside of 26.52%. Given PrimeEnergy’s competitors stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe PrimeEnergy has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

30.8% of shares of all “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” companies are owned by institutional investors. 65.3% of PrimeEnergy shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 15.3% of shares of all “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

PrimeEnergy has a beta of -0.28, indicating that its stock price is 128% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, PrimeEnergy’s competitors have a beta of -3.74, indicating that their average stock price is 474% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

PrimeEnergy competitors beat PrimeEnergy on 8 of the 13 factors compared.

PrimeEnergy Company Profile

PrimeEnergy Resources Corporation is an independent oil and natural gas company focused on acquiring, developing and producing oil and gas properties in the United States. The company’s operations are concentrated in Texas, with additional activity in other U.S. producing regions. Its work includes developing existing properties and producing oil and natural gas from its asset base. PrimeEnergy was founded in 1973 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.