Critical Survey: Bristow Group (NYSE:VTOL) and WBI (NYSE:WBI)

WBI (NYSE:WBI) and Bristow Group (NYSE:VTOL) are both energy companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, institutional ownership and valuation.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares WBI and Bristow Group”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
WBI	$525.55 million	7.15	$11.89 million	$0.08	380.62
Bristow Group	$1.56 billion	0.73	$129.07 million	$3.47	11.18

Bristow Group has higher revenue and earnings than WBI. Bristow Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than WBI, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares WBI and Bristow Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
WBI	0.54%	0.85%	0.41%
Bristow Group	6.66%	9.82%	4.45%

Dividends

WBI pays an annual dividend of $0.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Bristow Group pays an annual dividend of $0.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. WBI pays out 250.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Bristow Group pays out 14.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Bristow Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

93.3% of Bristow Group shares are held by institutional investors. 50.6% of WBI shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 12.8% of Bristow Group shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for WBI and Bristow Group, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
WBI	0	2	4	2	3.00
Bristow Group	0	1	3	0	2.75

WBI currently has a consensus target price of $36.75, indicating a potential upside of 20.69%. Bristow Group has a consensus target price of $60.00, indicating a potential upside of 54.72%. Given Bristow Group’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Bristow Group is more favorable than WBI.

Summary

Bristow Group beats WBI on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About WBI

WaterBridge Infrastructure LLC is an integrated, pure-play water infrastructure company. WaterBridge Infrastructure LLC is based in HOUSTON.

About Bristow Group

Bristow Group Inc. provides vertical flight solutions. The company primarily offers aviation services to integrated, national, and independent offshore energy companies and government agencies. It also provides personnel transportation, search and rescue, medevac, ad hoc helicopter, fixed wing transportation, unmanned systems, and ad-hoc helicopter services, as well as logistical and maintenance support, training services, and flight and maintenance crews. The company has a fleet of aircrafts. It has customers in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, the Dutch Caribbean, the Falkland Islands, India, Ireland, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Spain, Suriname, Trinidad, the United Kingdom, and United States. Bristow Group Inc. is based in Houston, Texas.