Reviewing California Resources (NYSE:CRC) & SunocoCorp (NYSE:SUNC)

California Resources (NYSE:CRC) and SunocoCorp (NYSE:SUNC) are both mid-cap energy companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, dividends, institutional ownership and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations for California Resources and SunocoCorp, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
California Resources	0	3	10	1	2.86
SunocoCorp	1	1	3	1	2.67

California Resources currently has a consensus target price of $74.10, suggesting a potential upside of 41.15%. SunocoCorp has a consensus target price of $81.00, suggesting a potential upside of 6.92%. Given California Resources’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe California Resources is more favorable than SunocoCorp.

Dividends

California Resources pays an annual dividend of $1.62 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. SunocoCorp pays an annual dividend of $4.01 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.3%. California Resources pays out -119.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. SunocoCorp pays out 138.8% 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 has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Profitability

This table compares California Resources and SunocoCorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
California Resources	-3.79%	9.82%	4.65%
SunocoCorp	N/A	N/A	N/A

Earnings and Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
California Resources	$3.73 billion	1.25	$363.00 million	($1.36)	-38.60
SunocoCorp	$25.20 billion	0.15	-$5.00 million	$2.89	26.21

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

97.8% of California Resources shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of California Resources shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 5.9% of SunocoCorp shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

California Resources beats SunocoCorp on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About SunocoCorp

Sunoco LP is an energy infrastructure and fuel distribution master limited partnership. Sunoco LP is based in DALLAS.