Critical Contrast: Energy Vault (NYSE:NRGV) & Cosan (NYSE:CSAN)

Cosan (NYSE:CSAN) and Energy Vault (NYSE:NRGV) are both energy companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, profitability and risk.

Volatility and Risk

Cosan has a beta of 0.72, indicating that its share price is 28% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Energy Vault has a beta of 1.17, indicating that its share price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Cosan and Energy Vault, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cosan	2	4	0	0	1.67
Energy Vault	2	1	3	0	2.17

Cosan currently has a consensus price target of $3.85, indicating a potential upside of 24.39%. Energy Vault has a consensus price target of $5.01, indicating a potential upside of 71.37%. Given Energy Vault’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Energy Vault is more favorable than Cosan.

Earnings & Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cosan	$7.24 billion	0.42	-$1.74 billion	($2.46)	-1.26
Energy Vault	$203.67 million	2.56	-$103.61 million	($0.71)	-4.12

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

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cosan	-24.09%	-14.30%	-3.49%
Energy Vault	-52.97%	-171.09%	-40.28%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

40.0% of Energy Vault shares are owned by institutional investors. 17.2% of Energy Vault shares are owned 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

Energy Vault 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 Energy Vault

Energy Vault Holdings, Inc. develops and sells energy storage solutions. The company offers B-Vault, an electrochemical battery energy storage systems for shorter-duration energy storage needs; G-Vault, a proprietary gravity energy storage solution, including EVx solution; and H-Vault, a hybrid energy storage systems including systems that integrate green hydrogen. Its software solutions includes Vault-OS, an energy management system the management of one or more diverse storage mediums; Vault-Bidder that utilizes machine learning algorithms to match node-specific data with real-time weather and asset performance information; and Vault-Manager which designs to safeguard asset management and to help blend developing technologies seamlessly into existing solutions. Energy Vault Holdings, Inc. is based in Westlake Village, California.