Critical Review: Nabors Industries (NYSE:NBR) & Archer (OTCMKTS:ARHVF)

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

10.9% of Archer shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 81.9% of Nabors Industries shares are owned by institutional investors. 7.3% of Nabors Industries shares 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.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Archer	N/A	N/A	N/A
Nabors Industries	-4.73%	-28.10%	-3.08%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Archer and Nabors Industries’ gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Archer	N/A	N/A	N/A	($0.76)	-3.31
Nabors Industries	$2.93 billion	0.31	-$11.78 million	($13.81)	-6.19

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Archer and Nabors Industries, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Archer	0	0	0	0	N/A
Nabors Industries	0	4	2	0	2.33

Nabors Industries has a consensus price target of $108.50, indicating a potential upside of 26.84%. Given Nabors Industries’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Nabors Industries is more favorable than Archer.

About Archer

Archer Limited, together with its subsidiaries, provides various oilfield products and services to the oil and gas industry in Norway, Argentina, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company operates in three segments: Platform Operations, Well Services, and Land Drilling. It provides oil tools, wireline services, and coil tubing and pumping services, as well as well construction and completion, well intervention and workover, slot recovery, well plug and abandonment, and surface, geothermal, and CCUS applications. It also offers platform drilling, plug and abandonment/decommissioning, modular drilling rigs, and mobile offshore drilling unit management services comprising project management consultancy, engineering and operations, and maintenance to rig owners, investors, and operating companies, as well as drill pipe pool and integrated services. In addition, the company provides engineering services, such as project management, construction and installations, multidiscipline engineering, consulting, and inspection services; and land drilling and directional drilling services. Further, it offers equipment rental, production monitoring, well imaging, and integrity management tools. Additionally, the company owns and operates onshore drilling and service rigs. The company was formerly known as Seawell Limited and changed its name to Archer Limited in May 2011. Archer Limited was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Sandnes, Norway.

About Nabors Industries

Nabors Industries Ltd. provides drilling and drilling-related services for land-based and offshore oil and natural gas wells in the United States and internationally. The company operates through four segments: U.S. Drilling, International Drilling, Drilling Solutions, and Rig Technologies. It provides tubular running services, including casing and tubing running, and torque monitoring; managed pressure drilling services; and drilling-bit steering systems and rig instrumentation software. The company also offers drilling systems comprising ROCKit, a directional steering control system; SmartNAV, a collaborative guidance and advisory platform; SmartSLIDE, a directional steering control system; and RigCLOUD, a digital infrastructure to integrate applications to deliver real-time insight into operations across the rig fleet. In addition, it operates a fleet of land-based drilling rigs and marketed platforms rigs; manufactures and sells top drives, catwalks, wrenches, drawworks, and other drilling related equipment, such as robotic systems and downhole tools; and provides aftermarket sales and services for the installed base of its equipment. Nabors Industries Ltd. was founded in 1952 and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda.