SM Energy (NYSE:SM) & Prairie Operating (NASDAQ:PROP) Head-To-Head Contrast

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

34.3% of Prairie Operating shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.6% of SM Energy shares are owned by institutional investors. 42.0% of Prairie Operating shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.5% of SM Energy shares are owned 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.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Prairie Operating and SM Energy’s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Prairie Operating	$1.55 million	76.52	-$79.08 million	N/A	N/A
SM Energy	$2.37 billion	2.20	$817.88 million	$6.38	7.10

SM Energy has higher revenue and earnings than Prairie Operating.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Prairie Operating and SM Energy, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Prairie Operating	0	0	0	0	N/A
SM Energy	0	4	6	0	2.60

SM Energy has a consensus price target of $54.89, suggesting a potential upside of 21.11%. Given SM Energy’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe SM Energy is more favorable than Prairie Operating.

Volatility and Risk

Prairie Operating has a beta of 1.96, suggesting that its share price is 96% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SM Energy has a beta of 4.2, suggesting that its share price is 320% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Prairie Operating	N/A	-1,088.01%	-159.22%
SM Energy	31.80%	20.10%	11.34%

Summary

SM Energy beats Prairie Operating on 9 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Prairie Operating

Prairie Operating Co., an independent energy company, engages in the development, exploration, and production of oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids in the United States. The company holds assets in the Denver-Julesburg Basin in Colorado; and the Niobrara and Codell formations. Prairie Operating Co. is based in Houston Texas.

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.