Contrasting Aemetis (NASDAQ:AMTX) & SM Energy (NYSE:SM)

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Aemetis and SM Energy, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Aemetis	1	0	1	0	2.00
SM Energy	0	5	10	2	2.82

Aemetis presently has a consensus price target of $11.88, indicating a potential upside of 661.22%. SM Energy has a consensus price target of $39.81, indicating a potential upside of 3.29%. Given Aemetis’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Aemetis is more favorable than SM Energy.

Profitability

This table compares Aemetis and SM Energy’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Aemetis	-27.37%	N/A	-26.60%
SM Energy	18.20%	17.93%	7.70%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Aemetis and SM Energy”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Aemetis	$197.63 million	0.57	-$77.00 million	($0.91)	-1.71
SM Energy	$3.15 billion	2.91	$648.00 million	$5.08	7.59

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

Volatility & Risk

Aemetis has a beta of 1.82, suggesting that its share price is 82% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SM Energy has a beta of 0.95, suggesting that its share price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

27.0% of Aemetis shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.6% of SM Energy shares are owned by institutional investors. 13.0% of Aemetis shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of SM Energy shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

SM Energy beats Aemetis on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Aemetis

Aemetis, Inc. operates as a renewable natural gas and renewable fuels company. It operates through three segments: California Ethanol, California Dairy Renewable Natural Gas, and India Biodiesel. The company focuses on the operation, acquisition, development, and commercialization of technologies to produce low and negative carbon intensity renewable fuels that replace fossil-based products. In addition, it produces and sells ethanol; and wet distillers grains, distillers corn oil, and condensed distillers solubles to dairies and feedlots as animal feed. Further, the company markets and supplies USP alcohol and hand sanitizer; and produces renewable natural gas, as well as distilled biodiesel from various vegetable oil and animal waste feedstocks. Additionally, it researches and develops conversion technologies using waste feedstocks to produce biofuels and biochemicals. Furthermore, it sells biodiesel primarily to government oil marketing companies. Aemetis, Inc. is headquartered in Cupertino, California.

About SM Energy

SM Energy Company, an independent energy company, engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and production of oil, gas, and natural gas liquids in the state of Texas. It has working interests in oil and gas producing wells in the Midland Basin and South Texas. The company was formerly known as St. Mary Land & Exploration Company and changed its name to SM Energy Company in May 2010. SM Energy Company was founded in 1908 and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado.