California Resources (NYSE:CRC) & HighPeak Energy (NASDAQ:HPK) Head-To-Head Analysis

HighPeak Energy (NASDAQ:HPK) and California Resources (NYSE:CRC) are both energy companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation and risk.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

24.1% of HighPeak Energy shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.8% of California Resources shares are held by institutional investors. 78.9% of HighPeak Energy shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of California Resources shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

HighPeak Energy has a beta of 0.6, indicating that its stock price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, California Resources has a beta of 1.04, indicating that its stock price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares HighPeak Energy and California Resources”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
HighPeak Energy	$863.36 million	0.98	$18.96 million	$0.09	74.22
California Resources	$3.40 billion	1.78	$363.00 million	$4.08	16.72

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

Dividends

HighPeak Energy pays an annual dividend of $0.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. California Resources pays an annual dividend of $1.62 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. HighPeak Energy pays out 177.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. California Resources pays out 39.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. HighPeak Energy has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years and California Resources has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for HighPeak Energy and California Resources, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
HighPeak Energy	2	0	0	1	2.00
California Resources	0	3	9	3	3.00

HighPeak Energy currently has a consensus target price of $12.00, indicating a potential upside of 79.64%. California Resources has a consensus target price of $71.20, indicating a potential upside of 4.35%. Given HighPeak Energy’s higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe HighPeak Energy is more favorable than California Resources.

Profitability

This table compares HighPeak Energy and California Resources’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
HighPeak Energy	2.33%	2.11%	1.09%
California Resources	9.89%	10.23%	5.19%

Summary

California Resources beats HighPeak Energy on 13 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About HighPeak Energy

HighPeak Energy, Inc., an independent oil and natural gas company, engages in the exploration, development, and production of crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids reserves in the Permian Basin in West Texas and Eastern New Mexico. The company was incorporated in 2019 and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas.

About California Resources

California Resources Corporation operates as an independent oil and natural gas exploration and production, and carbon management company in the United States. The company explores, produces, and markets crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids for marketers, California refineries, and other purchasers that have access to transportation and storage facilities. It also engages in the generation and sale of electricity to the wholesale power market and utility sector; and developing various carbon capture and storage projects in California. The company was incorporated in 2014 and is based in Long Beach, California.