Contrasting Ormat Technologies (NYSE:ORA) & Montauk Renewables (NASDAQ:MNTK)

Montauk Renewables (NASDAQ:MNTK) and Ormat Technologies (NYSE:ORA) are both energy companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, risk, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and valuation.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Montauk Renewables and Ormat Technologies, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Montauk Renewables	1	4	0	0	1.80
Ormat Technologies	0	4	8	0	2.67

Montauk Renewables presently has a consensus target price of $1.80, suggesting a potential upside of 3.45%. Ormat Technologies has a consensus target price of $133.18, suggesting a potential downside of 2.70%. Given Montauk Renewables’ higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Montauk Renewables is more favorable than Ormat Technologies.

Profitability

This table compares Montauk Renewables and Ormat Technologies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Montauk Renewables	0.40%	0.28%	0.17%
Ormat Technologies	10.97%	6.61%	2.80%

Risk and Volatility

Montauk Renewables has a beta of 0.47, suggesting that its share price is 53% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ormat Technologies has a beta of 0.8, suggesting that its share price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Montauk Renewables and Ormat Technologies”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Montauk Renewables	$176.38 million	1.40	$1.75 million	$0.02	87.00
Ormat Technologies	$1.16 billion	7.23	$123.90 million	$2.06	66.45

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

16.4% of Montauk Renewables shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.5% of Ormat Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. 54.3% of Montauk Renewables shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Ormat Technologies shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Ormat Technologies beats Montauk Renewables on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Montauk Renewables

Montauk Renewables, Inc., a renewable energy company, engages in recovery and processing of biogas from landfills and other non-fossil fuel sources. It operates in two segments, Renewable Natural Gas and Renewable Electricity Generation. The company develops, owns, and operates renewable natural gas (RNG) projects that captures methane and prevents it from being released into the atmosphere by converting it into either RNG or electrical power for the electrical grid. Its customers for RNG and renewable identification numbers (RIN) include large, long-term owner-operators of landfills and livestock farms, local utilities, and large refiners in the natural gas and refining sectors. Montauk Renewables, Inc. was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

About Ormat Technologies

Ormat Technologies, Inc. engages in the geothermal and recovered energy power business in the United States, Indonesia, Kenya, Turkey, Chile, Guatemala, Guadeloupe, New Zealand, Honduras, and internationally. It operates in three segments: Electricity, Product, and Energy Storage. The Electricity segment develops, builds, owns, and operates geothermal, solar photovoltaic, and recovered energy-based power plants; and sells electricity. The Product segment designs, manufactures, and sells equipment for geothermal and recovered energy-based electricity generation; and provides services relating to the engineering, procurement, construction, operation, and maintenance of geothermal and recovered energy-based power plants. This segment serves contractors; and owners and operators of interstate natural gas pipelines, gas processing plants, and cement plants, as well as companies in other energy-intensive industrial processes. The Energy Storage segment offers battery energy storage systems and related services. Ormat Technologies, Inc. was founded in 1965 and is headquartered in Reno, Nevada.