Financial Contrast: Shell (NYSE:SHEL) vs. Cross Timbers Royalty Trust (NYSE:CRT)

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) and Cross Timbers Royalty Trust (NYSE:CRT) are both energy companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, risk, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Shell and Cross Timbers Royalty Trust, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Shell	0	9	7	2	2.61
Cross Timbers Royalty Trust	0	1	0	0	2.00

Shell presently has a consensus price target of $106.08, suggesting a potential upside of 5.92%. Given Shell’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Shell is more favorable than Cross Timbers Royalty Trust.

Profitability

This table compares Shell and Cross Timbers Royalty Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Shell	8.55%	14.34%	6.74%
Cross Timbers Royalty Trust	74.04%	147.68%	81.96%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

28.6% of Shell shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 9.7% of Cross Timbers Royalty Trust shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of Shell shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 9.4% of Cross Timbers Royalty Trust shares are held 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.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Shell and Cross Timbers Royalty Trust”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Shell	$273.73 billion	1.03	$17.84 billion	$9.06	11.05
Cross Timbers Royalty Trust	$5.79 million	12.38	$6.15 million	$0.53	22.54

Shell has higher revenue and earnings than Cross Timbers Royalty Trust. Shell is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Cross Timbers Royalty Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk and Volatility

Shell has a beta of 0.1, meaning that its stock price is 90% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cross Timbers Royalty Trust has a beta of 0.01, meaning that its stock price is 99% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Shell pays an annual dividend of $3.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. Cross Timbers Royalty Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.77 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.4%. Shell pays out 34.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Cross Timbers Royalty Trust pays out 145.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Summary

Shell beats Cross Timbers Royalty Trust on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Shell

Shell plc operates as an energy and petrochemical company Europe, Asia, Oceania, Africa, the United States, and Rest of the Americas. The company operates through Integrated Gas, Upstream, Marketing, Chemicals and Products, and Renewables and Energy Solutions segments. It explores for and extracts crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids; markets and transports oil and gas; produces gas-to-liquids fuels and other products; and operates upstream and midstream infrastructure to deliver gas to market. The company also markets and trades natural gas, liquefied natural gas (LNG), crude oil, electricity, carbon-emission rights; and markets and sells LNG as a fuel for heavy-duty vehicles. In addition, it trades in and refines crude oil and other feed stocks, such as low-carbon fuels, lubricants, bitumen, sulphur, gasoline, diesel, aviation fuel, and marine fuel; produces and sells petrochemicals for industrial use; and manages oil sands activities. Further, the company produces base chemicals comprising ethylene, propylene, and aromatics, as well as intermediate chemicals, such as styrene monomer, propylene oxide, solvents, detergent alcohols, ethylene oxide, and ethylene glycol. Additionally, it generates electricity through wind and solar resources; produces and sells hydrogen; and provides electric vehicle charging services. The company was formerly known as Royal Dutch Shell plc and changed its name to Shell plc in January 2022. Shell plc was founded in 1907 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

About Cross Timbers Royalty Trust

Cross Timbers Royalty Trust operates as an express trust in the United States. It holds 90% net profits interests in certain producing and nonproducing royalty and overriding royalty interest properties in Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico; and 75% net profits working interest in four properties in Texas and three properties in Oklahoma. The company was founded in 1991 and is based in Dallas, Texas.