Critical Analysis: Woodside Energy Group (NYSE:WDS) & Cosan (NYSE:CSAN)

Cosan (NYSE:CSAN) and Woodside Energy Group (NYSE:WDS) are both energy companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, earnings and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Cosan and Woodside Energy Group, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cosan	1	3	0	0	1.75
Woodside Energy Group	0	2	0	1	2.67

Cosan currently has a consensus price target of $4.75, indicating a potential upside of 2.70%. Given Cosan’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Cosan is more favorable than Woodside Energy Group.

Profitability

This table compares Cosan and Woodside Energy Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cosan	-32.24%	-13.95%	-3.67%
Woodside Energy Group	N/A	N/A	N/A

Insider and Institutional Ownership

3.2% of Woodside Energy Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.0% of Woodside Energy Group shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Cosan pays an annual dividend of $0.31 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.7%. Woodside Energy Group pays an annual dividend of $1.14 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.1%. Cosan pays out -11.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Cosan and Woodside Energy Group”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cosan	$42.57 billion	0.05	-$1.75 billion	($2.80)	-1.65
Woodside Energy Group	$12.98 billion	3.25	$2.72 billion	N/A	N/A

Woodside Energy Group has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Cosan.

Risk & Volatility

Cosan has a beta of 0.8, meaning that its share price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Woodside Energy Group has a beta of 0.38, meaning that its share price is 62% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Woodside Energy Group beats Cosan on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Cosan

Cosan S.A. engages in the fuel distribution business. It operates through Raízen, Compass, Moove, Rumo, and Radar segments. The company’s Raízen segment engages in the production, commercialization, origination, and trading of ethanol, bioenergy, renewable sources, and sugar; trading and resale of electricity; and distribution and commercialization of fuels and lubricants. Its Compass segment distributes piped natural gas to industrial, residential, commercial, automotive, and cogeneration customers; and develops infrastructure projects in a regasification terminal, offshore gas pipeline, and thermal generation projects utilizing natural gas, as well as commercialization of electricity and natural gas. The company’s Moove segment produces and distributes lubricants under the Comma brand. Its Rumo segment provides logistics services for rail transportation, port storage, and loading of goods, including grains and sugar; and leases locomotives, wagons, and another railroad equipment, as well as operates containers. The company’s Radar segment manages agricultural property. It operates in Brazil, England, France, Spain and Portugal, Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay and Paraguay, the United States, Asia, and internationally. Cosan S.A. was founded in 1936 and is headquartered in São Paulo, Brazil.

About Woodside Energy Group

Woodside Energy Group Ltd engages in the exploration, evaluation, development, production, and marketing of hydrocarbons in the Asia Pacific, Africa, the Americas, and the Europe. The company produces liquefied natural gas, pipeline gas, crude oil and condensate, and natural gas liquids. It holds interests in the Pluto LNG, North West Shelf, Wheatstone and Julimar-Brunello, Bass Strait, Ngujima-Yin FPSO, Okha FPSO, Pyrenees FPSO, Macedon, Shenzi, Mad dog, Greater Angostura, as well as Scarborough, Sangomar, Trion, Calypso, Browse, Liard, Atlantis, Woodside Solar opportunity, and Sunrise and Troubadour. The company involves in development of new energy products and carbon services. The company was formerly known as Woodside Petroleum Ltd and changed its name to Woodside Energy Group Ltd in May 2022. Woodside Energy Group Ltd was founded in 1954 and is headquartered in Perth, Australia.