Financial Review: Nabors Industries (NYSE:NBR) and Noble (NYSE:NE)

Noble (NYSE:NE) and Nabors Industries (NYSE:NBR) are both energy companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, dividends and institutional ownership.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Noble and Nabors Industries”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Noble	$3.29 billion	2.32	$216.72 million	$1.35	35.41
Nabors Industries	$3.21 billion	0.36	$286.62 million	$16.49	4.84

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

Profitability

This table compares Noble and Nabors Industries’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Noble	6.60%	2.34%	1.40%
Nabors Industries	8.92%	-17.63%	-2.85%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

68.1% of Noble shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 81.9% of Nabors Industries shares are held by institutional investors. 1.2% of Noble shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.4% of Nabors Industries shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

Noble has a beta of 1.07, suggesting that its stock price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nabors Industries has a beta of 0.89, suggesting that its stock price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for Noble and Nabors Industries, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Noble	1	10	1	0	2.00
Nabors Industries	2	4	2	0	2.00

Noble currently has a consensus target price of $38.63, suggesting a potential downside of 19.19%. Nabors Industries has a consensus target price of $69.00, suggesting a potential downside of 13.56%. Given Nabors Industries’ higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Nabors Industries is more favorable than Noble.

Summary

Nabors Industries beats Noble on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Noble

Noble Corp. Plc engages in the provision offshore drilling services for oil and gas industry. It focuses on a balanced fleet of floating and jackup rigs and the deployment of drilling rigs in oil and gas basins around the world. The company was founded by Lloyd Noble and Art Olson in 1921 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

About Nabors Industries

Nabors Industries Ltd. provides drilling and drilling-related services for land-based and offshore oil and natural gas wells in the United States and internationally. The company operates through four segments: U.S. Drilling, International Drilling, Drilling Solutions, and Rig Technologies. It provides tubular running services, including casing and tubing running, and torque monitoring; managed pressure drilling services; and drilling-bit steering systems and rig instrumentation software. The company also offers drilling systems comprising ROCKit, a directional steering control system; SmartNAV, a collaborative guidance and advisory platform; SmartSLIDE, a directional steering control system; and RigCLOUD, a digital infrastructure to integrate applications to deliver real-time insight into operations across the rig fleet. In addition, it operates a fleet of land-based drilling rigs and marketed platforms rigs; manufactures and sells top drives, catwalks, wrenches, drawworks, and other drilling related equipment, such as robotic systems and downhole tools; and provides aftermarket sales and services for the installed base of its equipment. Nabors Industries Ltd. was founded in 1952 and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda.