Contrasting Sable Offshore (NYSE:SOC) and Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY)

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) and Sable Offshore (NYSE:SOC) are both energy companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, profitability, risk and dividends.

Risk and Volatility

Occidental Petroleum has a beta of 1.04, meaning that its stock price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sable Offshore has a beta of 0.6, meaning that its stock price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Occidental Petroleum and Sable Offshore, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Occidental Petroleum	2	17	4	0	2.09
Sable Offshore	1	0	6	0	2.71

Occidental Petroleum currently has a consensus target price of $54.70, indicating a potential upside of 17.92%. Sable Offshore has a consensus target price of $30.00, indicating a potential upside of 22.72%. Given Sable Offshore’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Sable Offshore is more favorable than Occidental Petroleum.

Profitability

This table compares Occidental Petroleum and Sable Offshore’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Occidental Petroleum	8.79%	13.78%	4.35%
Sable Offshore	N/A	-88.48%	-17.69%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

88.7% of Occidental Petroleum shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 26.2% of Sable Offshore shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of Occidental Petroleum shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 36.4% of Sable Offshore shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Occidental Petroleum and Sable Offshore”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Occidental Petroleum	$27.15 billion	1.68	$3.06 billion	$1.69	27.45
Sable Offshore	N/A	N/A	-$629.07 million	N/A	N/A

Occidental Petroleum has higher revenue and earnings than Sable Offshore.

Summary

Occidental Petroleum beats Sable Offshore on 7 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Occidental Petroleum

Occidental Petroleum Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of oil and gas properties in the United States, the Middle East, and North Africa. It operates through three segments: Oil and Gas, Chemical, and Midstream and Marketing. The company's Oil and Gas segment explores for, develops, and produces oil and condensate, natural gas liquids (NGLs), and natural gas. Its Chemical segment manufactures and markets basic chemicals, including chlorine, caustic soda, chlorinated organics, potassium chemicals, ethylene dichloride, chlorinated isocyanurates, sodium silicates, and calcium chloride; and vinyls comprising vinyl chloride monomer, polyvinyl chloride, and ethylene. The Midstream and Marketing segment gathers, processes, transports, stores, purchases, and markets oil, condensate, NGLs, natural gas, carbon dioxide, and power. This segment also invests in entities. Occidental Petroleum Corporation was founded in 1920 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

About Sable Offshore

Sable Offshore Corp. engages in the oil and gas exploration and development activities in the United States. The company operates through three platforms located in federal waters offshore California. It owns and operates 16 federal leases across approximately 76,000 acres and subsea pipelines, which transport crude oil, natural gas, and produced water from the platforms to the onshore processing facilities. The company was formerly known as Flame Acquisition Corp. and changed its name to Sable Offshore Corp. in February 2024. Sable Offshore Corp. was incorporated in 2020 and is based in Houston, Texas.