Critical Comparison: Green Brick Partners (NASDAQ:GRBK) versus LRR Energy (NASDAQ:LRE)

LRR Energy (NASDAQ:LRE) and Green Brick Partners (NASDAQ:GRBK) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation, institutional ownership, profitability and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings for LRR Energy and Green Brick Partners, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
LRR Energy	1	0	0	0	1.00
Green Brick Partners	0	2	0	0	2.00

Green Brick Partners has a consensus price target of $62.00, indicating a potential downside of 5.31%. Given Green Brick Partners’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Green Brick Partners is more favorable than LRR Energy.

Profitability

This table compares LRR Energy and Green Brick Partners’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
LRR Energy	N/A	N/A	N/A
Green Brick Partners	17.70%	25.35%	17.29%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares LRR Energy and Green Brick Partners”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
LRR Energy	$126.97 million	0.14	$5.67 million	N/A	N/A
Green Brick Partners	$2.10 billion	1.35	$284.63 million	$7.07	9.26

Green Brick Partners has higher revenue and earnings than LRR Energy.

Risk and Volatility

LRR Energy has a beta of 1.7, meaning that its stock price is 70% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Green Brick Partners has a beta of 1.99, meaning that its stock price is 99% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

78.2% of Green Brick Partners shares are owned by institutional investors. 29.7% of Green Brick Partners shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Green Brick Partners beats LRR Energy on 11 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About LRR Energy

LRR Energy, L.P. (LRR Energy) operates, acquires, exploits and develops producing oil and natural gas properties in North America. The Company’s properties consist of onshore oil and natural gas properties. Its oil and natural gas properties include the Permian Basin region in West Texas and Southeast New Mexico, the Mid-Continent region in Oklahoma and East Texas, and the Gulf Coast region in Texas. As of December 31, 2014, the Company’s total estimated proved reserves were approximately 33.8 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMBoe), of which approximately 88% were proved developed reserves (approximately 73% proved developed producing and approximately 15% proved developed non-producing). The Company’s general partner is LRE GP, LLC.

About Green Brick Partners

Green Brick Partners, Inc. is a diversified homebuilding and land development company in the United States. The company operates through three segments: Builder operations Central, Builder operations Southeast, and Land Development. The Builder operations Central segment operates builders in Texas; and the closing and delivery of homes. The Builder operations Southeast operates builders in Georgia and Florida. The Land Development segment acquires land for the development of residential lots that are transferred to our controlled builders or sold to third party homebuilders. It also provides financial services platform, including mortgage and title services. In addition, the company is engaged in all aspects of the homebuilding process, including land acquisition and development, entitlements, design, construction, marketing, and sales for its residential neighborhoods and master-planned communities. Green Brick Partners, Inc. was incorporated in 2006 and is based in Plano, Texas.