Head to Head Comparison: Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE:EPD) vs. NextDecade (NASDAQ:NEXT)

Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE:EPD) and NextDecade (NASDAQ:NEXT) are both energy companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, valuation, risk, profitability and institutional ownership.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Enterprise Products Partners and NextDecade”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Enterprise Products Partners	$56.22 billion	1.21	$5.90 billion	$2.67	11.73
NextDecade	N/A	N/A	-$61.75 million	($0.68)	-17.06

Enterprise Products Partners has higher revenue and earnings than NextDecade. NextDecade is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Enterprise Products Partners, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk and Volatility

Enterprise Products Partners has a beta of 0.64, meaning that its stock price is 36% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NextDecade has a beta of 1.08, meaning that its stock price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Enterprise Products Partners and NextDecade, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Enterprise Products Partners	0	5	7	2	2.79
NextDecade	0	0	3	0	3.00

Enterprise Products Partners currently has a consensus target price of $36.36, suggesting a potential upside of 16.16%. NextDecade has a consensus target price of $13.00, suggesting a potential upside of 12.07%. Given Enterprise Products Partners’ higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Enterprise Products Partners is more favorable than NextDecade.

Profitability

This table compares Enterprise Products Partners and NextDecade’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Enterprise Products Partners	10.26%	19.90%	7.75%
NextDecade	N/A	-32.09%	-8.02%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

26.1% of Enterprise Products Partners shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 66.7% of NextDecade shares are held by institutional investors. 32.6% of Enterprise Products Partners shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.2% of NextDecade shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Enterprise Products Partners beats NextDecade on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Enterprise Products Partners

Enterprise Products Partners L.P. provides midstream energy services to producers and consumers of natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGLs), crude oil, petrochemicals, and refined products. It operates in four segments: NGL Pipelines & Services, Crude Oil Pipelines & Services, Natural Gas Pipelines & Services, and Petrochemical & Refined Products Services. The NGL Pipelines & Services segment offers natural gas processing and related NGL marketing services. It operates natural gas processing facilities located in Colorado, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Texas, and Wyoming; NGL pipelines; NGL fractionation facilities; NGL and related product storage facilities; and NGL marine terminals. The Crude Oil Pipelines & Services segment operates crude oil pipelines; and crude oil storage and marine terminals, which include a fleet of approximately 250 tractor-trailer tank trucks that are used to transport crude oil. It also engages in crude oil marketing activities. The Natural Gas Pipelines & Services segment operates natural gas pipeline systems to gather, treat, and transport natural gas. It leases underground salt dome natural gas storage facilities in Napoleonville, Louisiana; owns an underground salt dome storage cavern in Wharton County, Texas; and markets natural gas. The Petrochemical & Refined Products Services segment operates propylene fractionation facilities, including propylene fractionation units and propane dehydrogenation facilities, and related marketing activities; butane isomerization complex and related deisobutanizer operations; and octane enhancement, isobutane dehydrogenation, and high purity isobutylene production facilities. It also operates refined products pipelines and terminals; and ethylene export terminals; and provides refined products marketing and marine transportation services. Enterprise Products Partners L.P. was founded in 1968 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

About NextDecade

NextDecade Corp. is a development company.