YPF Sociedad Anonima (NYSE:YPF) vs. Golar LNG (NASDAQ:GLNG) Financial Comparison

Golar LNG (NASDAQ:GLNG) and YPF Sociedad Anonima (NYSE:YPF) are both energy companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Golar LNG and YPF Sociedad Anonima, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Golar LNG	1	2	4	3	2.90
YPF Sociedad Anonima	0	5	3	0	2.38

Golar LNG presently has a consensus price target of $50.42, suggesting a potential upside of 31.95%. YPF Sociedad Anonima has a consensus price target of $43.60, suggesting a potential upside of 16.87%. Given Golar LNG’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Golar LNG is more favorable than YPF Sociedad Anonima.

Profitability

This table compares Golar LNG and YPF Sociedad Anonima’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Golar LNG	17.96%	6.07%	3.12%
YPF Sociedad Anonima	-2.45%	2.88%	1.16%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Golar LNG and YPF Sociedad Anonima”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Golar LNG	$260.37 million	15.34	$50.84 million	$0.57	67.04
YPF Sociedad Anonima	$19.29 billion	0.76	$2.35 billion	($1.18)	-31.61

YPF Sociedad Anonima has higher revenue and earnings than Golar LNG. YPF Sociedad Anonima is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Golar LNG, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

92.2% of Golar LNG shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 10.1% of YPF Sociedad Anonima shares are held by institutional investors. 0.0% of Golar LNG shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

Golar LNG has a beta of 0.18, meaning that its stock price is 82% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, YPF Sociedad Anonima has a beta of 1.44, meaning that its stock price is 44% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Golar LNG beats YPF Sociedad Anonima on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Golar LNG

Golar LNG Limited designs, converts, owns, and operates marine infrastructure for the liquefaction of natural gas. The company operates through three segments: FLNG, Corporate and Other, and Shipping. It engages in the regasification, storage, and offloading of liquefied natural gas (LNG); operation of floating liquefaction natural gas (FLNG) vessels or projects; transportation of LNG carriers; and vessel management activities. Golar LNG Limited was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda.

About YPF Sociedad Anonima

YPF Sociedad Anónima, an energy company, engages in the oil and gas upstream and downstream activities in Argentina. Its upstream operations include the exploration, exploitation, and production of crude oil, and natural gas. The company’s downstream operations include petrochemical production and crude oil refining; transportation and distribution refined and petrochemical products; commercialization of crude oil, petrochemical products, and specialties. Its gas and power operations include transportation, commercialization, and distribution of natural gas; operation of regasification terminals; conditioning, processing, and separation of natural gas; and power generation. The company had interests in oil and gas fields. It also had a retail distribution network and retail service stations. In addition, the company owns and operates refineries, as well as maintains terminal facilities Argentine ports. Further, it participates in power generation plants; offers diesel, fertilizers, lubricants, phytosanitary products, and ensiling bags; and supplies diesel, gasoline, fuel oil, coal, asphalts, paraffin, and sulfur, CO2, decanted oil, and aromatic extract. The company was incorporated in 1977 and is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.