Financial Analysis: Geospace Technologies (NASDAQ:GEOS) and Solaris Energy Infrastructure (NYSE:SEI)

Solaris Energy Infrastructure (NYSE:SEI) and Geospace Technologies (NASDAQ:GEOS) are both energy companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, risk, dividends and valuation.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

67.4% of Solaris Energy Infrastructure shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 57.2% of Geospace Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. 20.2% of Solaris Energy Infrastructure shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.0% of Geospace Technologies shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Solaris Energy Infrastructure and Geospace Technologies”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Solaris Energy Infrastructure	$622.21 million	6.83	$30.17 million	$0.85	65.26
Geospace Technologies	$110.80 million	0.47	-$9.72 million	($3.08)	-1.30

Solaris Energy Infrastructure has higher revenue and earnings than Geospace Technologies. Geospace Technologies is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Solaris Energy Infrastructure, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Solaris Energy Infrastructure and Geospace Technologies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Solaris Energy Infrastructure	7.19%	13.26%	4.80%
Geospace Technologies	-43.10%	-35.80%	-28.30%

Volatility and Risk

Solaris Energy Infrastructure has a beta of 1.4, suggesting that its share price is 40% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Geospace Technologies has a beta of 0.16, suggesting that its share price is 84% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Solaris Energy Infrastructure and Geospace Technologies, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Solaris Energy Infrastructure	0	1	10	1	3.00
Geospace Technologies	1	0	0	0	1.00

Solaris Energy Infrastructure currently has a consensus target price of $94.08, indicating a potential upside of 69.61%. Given Solaris Energy Infrastructure’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Solaris Energy Infrastructure is more favorable than Geospace Technologies.

Summary

Solaris Energy Infrastructure beats Geospace Technologies on 15 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Solaris Energy Infrastructure

Solaris Energy Infrastructure, Inc. is a holding company, which engages in the manufacture of patented mobile proppant management systems that unload, store, and deliver proppant to oil and natural gas well sites. Its products include Mobile Proppant and Mobile Chemical Management Systems, and Inventory Management Software. The firm’s services include field, last mile management, and transloading services. The company was founded by William A. Zartler in 2014 and is headquartered in Houston, TX.

About Geospace Technologies

Geospace Technologies Corporation designs and manufactures instruments and equipment used in the oil and gas industry to acquire seismic data in order to locate, characterize, and monitor hydrocarbon producing reservoirs. The company operates through three segments: Oil and Gas Markets, Adjacent Markets, and Emerging Markets. The Oil and Gas Markets segment offers wireless seismic data acquisition systems and reservoir characterization products and services, as well as traditional seismic exploration products, such as geophones, hydrophones, leader wires, connectors, cables, marine streamer retrieval and steering devices, and other seismic products. The Adjacent Markets segment provides industrial products, including imaging equipment, water meter products, remote shut-off valves, and Internet of Things platform, as well as seismic sensors for vibration monitoring and geotechnical applications, such as mine safety and earthquake detection applications; and electronic pre-press products that employ direct thermal imaging, direct-to-screen printing systems, and digital inkjet printing technologies targeted at the commercial and industrial graphics, textile, and flexographic printing industries. The Emerging Markets segment designs and sells products used for border and perimeter security surveillance, cross-border tunneling detection, and other products targeted at movement monitoring, intrusion detection, and situational awareness. This segment serves various agencies of the United States government, including the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security, and other agencies. The company operates in Asia, Canada, Europe, South America, the United States, and internationally. Geospace Technologies Corporation was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.