North American Construction Group (NYSE:NOA) vs. USA Compression Partners (NYSE:USAC) Critical Contrast

USA Compression Partners (NYSE:USAC) and North American Construction Group (NYSE:NOA) are both energy companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, dividends and profitability.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

47.8% of USA Compression Partners shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 75.0% of North American Construction Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.7% of North American Construction Group shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

USA Compression Partners has a beta of 0.36, indicating that its share price is 64% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, North American Construction Group has a beta of 1.29, indicating that its share price is 29% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares USA Compression Partners and North American Construction Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
USA Compression Partners	10.99%	-76.84%	4.23%
North American Construction Group	2.82%	17.15%	4.16%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares USA Compression Partners and North American Construction Group”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
USA Compression Partners	$991.51 million	2.89	$99.57 million	$0.80	29.24
North American Construction Group	$1.28 billion	0.31	$32.17 million	$0.94	14.35

USA Compression Partners has higher earnings, but lower revenue than North American Construction Group. North American Construction Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than USA Compression Partners, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for USA Compression Partners and North American Construction Group, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
USA Compression Partners	1	3	0	1	2.20
North American Construction Group	0	7	0	0	2.00

USA Compression Partners presently has a consensus target price of $25.50, suggesting a potential upside of 9.03%. Given USA Compression Partners’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe USA Compression Partners is more favorable than North American Construction Group.

Dividends

USA Compression Partners pays an annual dividend of $2.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.0%. North American Construction Group pays an annual dividend of $0.34 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. USA Compression Partners pays out 262.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. North American Construction Group pays out 36.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. North American Construction Group has raised its dividend for 3 consecutive years.

Summary

USA Compression Partners beats North American Construction Group on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About USA Compression Partners

USA Compression Partners, LP provides compression services under term contracts with customers in the natural gas and crude oil industries in the United States. The company engineers, designs, operates, services, and repairs its compression units; and maintains related support inventory and equipment. It also provides compression services in various shale plays, including the Utica, Marcellus, Permian Basin, Delaware Basin, Eagle Ford, Mississippi Lime, Granite Wash, Woodford, Barnett, Haynesville, Niobrara, and Fayetteville shales. As of December 31, 2017, the company had approximately 1,799,781 horsepower in its fleet. It serves oil companies; and independent producers, processors, gatherers, and transporters of natural gas and crude oil. USA Compression GP, LLC operates as the general partner of USA Compression Partners, LP. The company was formerly known as Compression Holdings, LP, and changed its name to USA Compression Partners, LP in June 2011. USA Compression Partners, LP was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

About North American Construction Group

North American Construction Group Ltd. provides mining and heavy civil construction services to customers in the resource development and industrial construction sectors in Australia, Canada, and the United States. The company operates Heavy Equipment – Canada, Heavy Equipment – Australia, and Other segments. It also offers mine management services for thermal coal mines; and construction and operations support services in the Canadian oil sands region. In addition, the company provides fully maintained heavy equipment rentals and full service mine operations support at metallurgical and thermal coal mines; heavy equipment rentals to iron ore, gold and lithium producers; and heavy equipment maintenance, component remanufacturing, and full equipment rebuild services to mining companies and other heavy equipment operators, as well as supplies production-critical components to the mining and construction industry. As of December 31, 2023, it operated a heavy equipment fleet of 900 units. The company was formerly known as North American Energy Partners Inc. and changed its name to North American Construction Group Ltd. in April 2018. North American Construction Group Ltd. was incorporated in 1953 and is headquartered in Acheson, Canada.