Reviewing Golar LNG (NASDAQ:GLNG) & YPF Sociedad Anonima (NYSE:YPF)

YPF Sociedad Anonima (NYSE:YPF) and Golar LNG (NASDAQ:GLNG) are both energy companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, risk, valuation, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

10.1% of YPF Sociedad Anonima shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.2% of Golar LNG shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.0% of Golar LNG shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for YPF Sociedad Anonima and Golar LNG, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
YPF Sociedad Anonima	0	5	3	0	2.38
Golar LNG	1	2	4	3	2.90

YPF Sociedad Anonima presently has a consensus target price of $43.60, suggesting a potential upside of 18.35%. Golar LNG has a consensus target price of $50.42, suggesting a potential upside of 36.46%. Given Golar LNG’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Golar LNG is more favorable than YPF Sociedad Anonima.

Risk & Volatility

YPF Sociedad Anonima has a beta of 1.73, meaning that its stock price is 73% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Golar LNG has a beta of 0.29, meaning that its stock price is 71% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

YPF Sociedad Anonima pays an annual dividend of $0.14 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.4%. Golar LNG pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. YPF Sociedad Anonima pays out -11.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Golar LNG pays out 175.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Golar LNG has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Golar LNG is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares YPF Sociedad Anonima and Golar LNG”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
YPF Sociedad Anonima	$18.50 billion	0.78	$2.35 billion	($1.18)	-31.22
Golar LNG	$326.63 million	11.82	$50.84 million	$0.57	64.82

YPF Sociedad Anonima has higher revenue and earnings than Golar LNG. YPF Sociedad Anonima is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Golar LNG, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares YPF Sociedad Anonima and Golar LNG’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
YPF Sociedad Anonima	6.32%	12.39%	5.07%
Golar LNG	-2.83%	6.36%	3.44%

Summary

Golar LNG beats YPF Sociedad Anonima on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About YPF Sociedad Anonima

YPF Sociedad Anónima, an energy company, engages in the oil and gas upstream and downstream activities in Argentina. Its upstream operations include the exploration, exploitation, and production of crude oil, and natural gas. The company’s downstream operations include petrochemical production and crude oil refining; transportation and distribution refined and petrochemical products; commercialization of crude oil, petrochemical products, and specialties. Its gas and power operations include transportation, commercialization, and distribution of natural gas; operation of regasification terminals; conditioning, processing, and separation of natural gas; and power generation. The company had interests in oil and gas fields. It also had a retail distribution network and retail service stations. In addition, the company owns and operates refineries, as well as maintains terminal facilities Argentine ports. Further, it participates in power generation plants; offers diesel, fertilizers, lubricants, phytosanitary products, and ensiling bags; and supplies diesel, gasoline, fuel oil, coal, asphalts, paraffin, and sulfur, CO2, decanted oil, and aromatic extract. The company was incorporated in 1977 and is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

About Golar LNG

Golar LNG Limited designs, converts, owns, and operates marine infrastructure for the liquefaction of natural gas. The company operates through three segments: FLNG, Corporate and Other, and Shipping. It engages in the regasification, storage, and offloading of liquefied natural gas (LNG); operation of floating liquefaction natural gas (FLNG) vessels or projects; transportation of LNG carriers; and vessel management activities. Golar LNG Limited was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda.