Contrasting Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) and Imperial Petroleum (NASDAQ:IMPPP)

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) and Imperial Petroleum (NASDAQ:IMPPP) are both oils/energy companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, risk and dividends.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Williams Companies and Imperial Petroleum”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Williams Companies	$10.45 billion	6.06	$3.18 billion	$2.38	21.85
Imperial Petroleum	$147.51 million	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Williams Companies has higher revenue and earnings than Imperial Petroleum.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Williams Companies and Imperial Petroleum, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Williams Companies	1	6	9	0	2.50
Imperial Petroleum	0	0	0	0	N/A

Williams Companies currently has a consensus target price of $47.46, indicating a potential downside of 8.73%. Given Williams Companies’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Williams Companies is more favorable than Imperial Petroleum.

Profitability

This table compares Williams Companies and Imperial Petroleum’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Williams Companies	27.11%	16.17%	4.55%
Imperial Petroleum	N/A	N/A	N/A

Dividends

Williams Companies pays an annual dividend of $1.90 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. Imperial Petroleum pays an annual dividend of $2.19 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.7%. Williams Companies pays out 79.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

86.4% of Williams Companies shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.4% of Williams Companies shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Williams Companies beats Imperial Petroleum on 8 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Williams Companies

The Williams Companies, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as an energy infrastructure company primarily in the United States. It operates through Transmission & Gulf of Mexico, Northeast G&P, West, and Gas & NGL Marketing Services segments. The Transmission & Gulf of Mexico segment comprises natural gas pipelines; Transco, Northwest pipeline, MountainWest, and related natural gas storage facilities; and natural gas gathering and processing, and crude oil production handling and transportation assets in the Gulf Coast region. The Northeast G&P segment engages in the midstream gathering, processing, and fractionation activities in the Marcellus Shale region primarily in Pennsylvania and New York, and the Utica Shale region of eastern Ohio. The West segment consists of gas gathering, processing, and treating operations in the Rocky Mountain region of Colorado and Wyoming, the Barnett Shale region of north-central Texas, the Eagle Ford Shale region of South Texas, the Haynesville Shale region of northwest Louisiana, the Mid-Continent region that includes the Anadarko and Permian basins, and the DJ Basin of Colorado; and operates natural gas liquid (NGL) fractionation and storage facilities in central Kansas near Conway. The Gas & NGL Marketing Services segment provides wholesale marketing, trading, storage, and transportation of natural gas for natural gas utilities, municipalities, power generators, and producers; asset management services; and transports and markets NGLs. The company owns and operates 33,000 miles of pipelines. The Williams Companies, Inc. was founded in 1908 and is headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

About Imperial Petroleum

Imperial Petroleum Inc. provides international seaborne transportation services to oil producers, refineries, and commodities traders. It carries refined petroleum products, such as gasoline, diesel, fuel oil, and jet fuel, as well as edible oils and chemicals, crude oils, iron ore, coal and grains, and minor bulks, such as bauxite, phosphate, and fertilizers. As of April 1, 2024, the company owned and operated a fleet of six medium range refined petroleum product tankers; one Aframax tanker; two suezmax tankers; and two handysize drybulk carriers with a total capacity of 791,000 deadweight tons. The company was incorporated in 2021 and is based in Athens, Greece.