Financial Contrast: Black Stone Minerals (NYSE:BSM) versus Whitecap Resources (OTCMKTS:SPGYF)

Black Stone Minerals (NYSE:BSM) and Whitecap Resources (OTCMKTS:SPGYF) are both energy companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Black Stone Minerals and Whitecap Resources”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Black Stone Minerals	$505.05 million	6.28	$422.55 million	$1.54	9.80
Whitecap Resources	N/A	N/A	N/A	$1.34	5.68

Black Stone Minerals has higher revenue and earnings than Whitecap Resources. Whitecap Resources is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Black Stone Minerals, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

14.5% of Black Stone Minerals shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 37.2% of Whitecap Resources shares are held by institutional investors. 19.6% of Black Stone Minerals shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Black Stone Minerals and Whitecap Resources’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Black Stone Minerals	64.88%	37.93%	27.04%
Whitecap Resources	N/A	N/A	N/A

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Black Stone Minerals and Whitecap Resources, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Black Stone Minerals	0	3	1	0	2.25
Whitecap Resources	0	0	0	0	N/A

Black Stone Minerals currently has a consensus price target of $17.50, suggesting a potential upside of 15.97%. Given Black Stone Minerals’ higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Black Stone Minerals is more favorable than Whitecap Resources.

Dividends

Black Stone Minerals pays an annual dividend of $1.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.9%. Whitecap Resources pays an annual dividend of $0.63 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.3%. Black Stone Minerals pays out 97.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Whitecap Resources pays out 47.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Summary

Black Stone Minerals beats Whitecap Resources on 10 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Black Stone Minerals

Black Stone Minerals, L.P., together with its subsidiaries, owns and manages oil and natural gas mineral interests. It owns mineral interests in approximately 16.8 million gross acres, nonparticipating royalty interests in 1.8 million gross acres, and overriding royalty interests in 1.6 million gross acres located in 41 states in the United States. The company was founded in 1876 and is based in Houston, Texas.

About Whitecap Resources

Whitecap Resources Inc., an oil and gas company, focuses on the acquisition, development, and production of oil and gas assets in Western Canada. The company's primary areas of focus of its development programs are in Northern Alberta and British Columbia, Central Alberta, and Saskatchewan. The company was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.