Head to Head Review: PEDEVCO (NYSE:PED) and Chesapeake Energy (OTCMKTS:CHKAQ)

PEDEVCO (NYSE:PED) and Chesapeake Energy (OTCMKTS:CHKAQ) are both small-cap oils/energy companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership and valuation.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares PEDEVCO and Chesapeake Energy”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
PEDEVCO	$30.78 million	2.45	$260,000.00	$0.02	42.33
Chesapeake Energy	$8.49 billion	0.00	-$308.00 million	($54.00)	-0.06

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for PEDEVCO and Chesapeake Energy, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
PEDEVCO	0	0	2	0	3.00
Chesapeake Energy	0	0	0	0	0.00

PEDEVCO presently has a consensus target price of $1.63, indicating a potential upside of 92.06%. Given PEDEVCO’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe PEDEVCO is more favorable than Chesapeake Energy.

Volatility & Risk

PEDEVCO has a beta of 0.6, meaning that its share price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Chesapeake Energy has a beta of 1.25, meaning that its share price is 25% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares PEDEVCO and Chesapeake Energy’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
PEDEVCO	6.57%	1.58%	1.39%
Chesapeake Energy	-162.46%	N/A	-3.45%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

3.3% of PEDEVCO shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 2.0% of Chesapeake Energy shares are held by institutional investors. 70.6% of PEDEVCO shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of Chesapeake Energy shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

PEDEVCO beats Chesapeake Energy on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About PEDEVCO

PEDEVCO Corp., an oil and gas company, focuses on the acquisition, development, and production of oil and natural gas assets in the United States. It holds interests in the Permian Basin asset covering an area of approximately 22,721 net acres located in New Mexico; and D-J Basin asset covering an area of approximately 19,214 net acres located in Wyoming. The company is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

About Chesapeake Energy

Chesapeake Energy Corp. is an independent exploration and production company, which engages in acquisition, exploration and development of properties for the production of oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids from underground reservoirs. It focuses on projects located in Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wyoming. The company was founded by Aubrey K. McClendon and Tom L. Ward on May 18, 1989 and is headquartered in Oklahoma City, OK.