Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) & Berry (NASDAQ:BRY) Critical Survey

Berry (NASDAQ:BRY) and Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) are both energy companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, valuation, risk, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Berry and Occidental Petroleum”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Berry	$776.50 million	0.28	$19.25 million	$0.07	40.29
Occidental Petroleum	$26.88 billion	1.62	$3.06 billion	$1.69	26.20

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

94.9% of Berry shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 88.7% of Occidental Petroleum shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.0% of Berry shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Occidental Petroleum shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Berry and Occidental Petroleum, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Berry	0	1	1	0	2.50
Occidental Petroleum	2	15	4	0	2.10

Berry currently has a consensus target price of $4.00, suggesting a potential upside of 41.84%. Occidental Petroleum has a consensus target price of $53.4286, suggesting a potential upside of 20.69%. Given Berry’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Berry is more favorable than Occidental Petroleum.

Dividends

Berry pays an annual dividend of $0.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.3%. Occidental Petroleum pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Berry pays out 171.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Occidental Petroleum pays out 56.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Occidental Petroleum has increased its dividend for 5 consecutive years.

Profitability

This table compares Berry and Occidental Petroleum’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Berry	0.60%	5.27%	2.48%
Occidental Petroleum	8.79%	13.78%	4.35%

Risk and Volatility

Berry has a beta of 1.12, meaning that its stock price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Occidental Petroleum has a beta of 0.91, meaning that its stock price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Occidental Petroleum beats Berry on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Berry

Berry Petroleum Company, LLC., formerly Berry Petroleum Company, is an independent energy company. The Company is engaged in the production, development, exploitation, and acquisition of oil and natural gas. The Company’s principal reserves and producing properties are located in California (South Midway-Sunset (SMWSS)-Steam Floods, North Midway-Sunset (NMWSS)-Diatomite, NMWSS-New Steam Floods, Texas (Permian and E. Texas), Utah (Uinta) and Colorado (Piceance). The Company’s operations are conducted in the continental United States. In December 2013, Linn Energy LLC and Linn Co, LLC (Linn Co) announced the completion of the merger between LinnCo and Berry Petroleum Company (Berry), where LinnCo had acquired all of Berry’s interest.

About Occidental Petroleum

Occidental Petroleum Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of oil and gas properties in the United States, the Middle East, and North Africa. It operates through three segments: Oil and Gas, Chemical, and Midstream and Marketing. The company's Oil and Gas segment explores for, develops, and produces oil and condensate, natural gas liquids (NGLs), and natural gas. Its Chemical segment manufactures and markets basic chemicals, including chlorine, caustic soda, chlorinated organics, potassium chemicals, ethylene dichloride, chlorinated isocyanurates, sodium silicates, and calcium chloride; and vinyls comprising vinyl chloride monomer, polyvinyl chloride, and ethylene. The Midstream and Marketing segment gathers, processes, transports, stores, purchases, and markets oil, condensate, NGLs, natural gas, carbon dioxide, and power. This segment also invests in entities. Occidental Petroleum Corporation was founded in 1920 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.