Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) & California Resources (NYSE:CRC) Head to Head Contrast

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) and California Resources (NYSE:CRC) are both mid-cap energy companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, risk, valuation, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Murphy Oil and California Resources, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Murphy Oil	3	11	1	0	1.87
California Resources	0	2	10	3	3.07

Murphy Oil presently has a consensus target price of $27.25, suggesting a potential downside of 9.29%. California Resources has a consensus target price of $66.58, suggesting a potential upside of 24.78%. Given California Resources’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe California Resources is more favorable than Murphy Oil.

Profitability

This table compares Murphy Oil and California Resources’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Murphy Oil	10.20%	5.25%	2.88%
California Resources	16.14%	11.95%	6.00%

Dividends

Murphy Oil pays an annual dividend of $1.30 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.3%. California Resources pays an annual dividend of $1.55 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. Murphy Oil pays out 67.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. California Resources pays out 21.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Murphy Oil has increased its dividend for 5 consecutive years and California Resources has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Murphy Oil is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

78.3% of Murphy Oil shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.8% of California Resources shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.5% of Murphy Oil shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.0% of California Resources shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

Murphy Oil has a beta of 1.03, indicating that its share price is 3% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, California Resources has a beta of 1.16, indicating that its share price is 16% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Murphy Oil and California Resources”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Murphy Oil	$2.78 billion	1.54	$407.17 million	$1.93	15.56
California Resources	$3.20 billion	1.40	$376.00 million	$7.32	7.29

Murphy Oil has higher earnings, but lower revenue than California Resources. California Resources is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Murphy Oil, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

California Resources beats Murphy Oil on 12 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Murphy Oil

Murphy Oil Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an oil and gas exploration and production company in the United States, Canada, and internationally. It explores for and produces crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids. The company was formerly known as Murphy Corporation and changed its name to Murphy Oil Corporation in 1964. The company was incorporated in 1950 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

About California Resources

California Resources Corporation operates as an independent oil and natural gas exploration and production, and carbon management company in the United States. The company explores, produces, and markets crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids for marketers, California refineries, and other purchasers that have access to transportation and storage facilities. It also engages in the generation and sale of electricity to the wholesale power market and utility sector; and developing various carbon capture and storage projects in California. The company was incorporated in 2014 and is based in Long Beach, California.