Contrasting Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) & ERHC Energy (OTCMKTS:ERHE)

ERHC Energy (OTCMKTS:ERHE) and Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) are both energy companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, dividends and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for ERHC Energy and Murphy Oil, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ERHC Energy	0	0	0	0	0.00
Murphy Oil	3	13	0	0	1.81

Murphy Oil has a consensus target price of $29.54, suggesting a potential downside of 6.50%. Given Murphy Oil’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Murphy Oil is more favorable than ERHC Energy.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares ERHC Energy and Murphy Oil”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
ERHC Energy	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Murphy Oil	$3.03 billion	1.49	$407.17 million	$0.98	32.24

Murphy Oil has higher revenue and earnings than ERHC Energy.

Profitability

This table compares ERHC Energy and Murphy Oil’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ERHC Energy	N/A	N/A	N/A
Murphy Oil	5.16%	4.30%	2.34%

Risk & Volatility

ERHC Energy has a beta of -5.3, suggesting that its stock price is 630% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Murphy Oil has a beta of 0.78, suggesting that its stock price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

78.3% of Murphy Oil shares are held by institutional investors. 4.9% of ERHC Energy shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 6.5% of Murphy Oil shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Murphy Oil beats ERHC Energy on 9 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About ERHC Energy

ERHC Energy Inc. engages in the exploration and exploitation of oil and gas resources in Africa. Its principal assets include the rights to working interests in exploration acreage in the Republic of Kenya; the Republic of Chad; the Joint Development Zone between the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe; the Federal Republic of Nigeria; and the economic zone of Sao Tome. The company was founded in 1986 and is based in Houston, Texas.

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.