Head-To-Head Contrast: Plains All American Pipeline (NASDAQ:PAA) & Expand Energy (NASDAQ:EXE)

Expand Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) and Plains All American Pipeline (NASDAQ:PAA) are both large-cap energy companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, risk, profitability and valuation.

Profitability

This table compares Expand Energy and Plains All American Pipeline’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Expand Energy	19.78%	10.69%	7.13%
Plains All American Pipeline	5.29%	12.13%	4.59%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Expand Energy and Plains All American Pipeline, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Expand Energy	0	5	15	3	2.91
Plains All American Pipeline	2	7	8	1	2.44

Expand Energy currently has a consensus price target of $123.00, suggesting a potential upside of 37.49%. Plains All American Pipeline has a consensus price target of $26.07, suggesting a potential upside of 1.55%. Given Expand Energy’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Expand Energy is more favorable than Plains All American Pipeline.

Dividends

Expand Energy pays an annual dividend of $2.30 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Plains All American Pipeline pays an annual dividend of $1.67 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.5%. Expand Energy pays out 19.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Plains All American Pipeline pays out 46.3% 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. Plains All American Pipeline has increased its dividend for 5 consecutive years. Plains All American Pipeline is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Volatility & Risk

Expand Energy has a beta of 0.41, meaning that its stock price is 59% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Plains All American Pipeline has a beta of 0.57, meaning that its stock price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

97.9% of Expand Energy shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 41.8% of Plains All American Pipeline shares are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of Expand Energy shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of Plains All American Pipeline shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Expand Energy and Plains All American Pipeline”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Expand Energy	$13.97 billion	1.48	$1.82 billion	$11.54	7.75
Plains All American Pipeline	$52.30 billion	0.35	$1.44 billion	$3.61	7.11

Expand Energy has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Plains All American Pipeline. Plains All American Pipeline is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Expand Energy, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Expand Energy beats Plains All American Pipeline on 12 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Expand Energy

Expand Energy Corporation is an independent natural gas producer principally in the United States. Expand Energy Corporation, formerly known as Chesapeake Energy Corporation, is based in OKLAHOMA CITY.

About Plains All American Pipeline

Plains All American Pipeline, L.P., through its subsidiaries, engages in the pipeline transportation, terminalling, storage, and gathering of crude oil and natural gas liquids (NGL) in the United States and Canada. The company operates in two segments, Crude Oil and NGL. The Crude Oil segment offers gathering and transporting crude oil through pipelines, gathering systems, trucks, and at times on barges or railcars. This segment provides terminalling, storage, and other facilities-related services, as well as merchant activities. As of December 31, 2021, this segment owned and leased 18,300 miles of active crude oil transportation pipelines and gathering systems, as well as an additional 110 miles of pipelines that supports crude oil storage and terminalling facilities; 74 million barrels of commercial crude oil storage capacity; 38 million barrels of active, above-ground tank capacity; four marine facilities; a condensate processing facility; seven crude oil rail terminals and 2,100 crude oil railcars; and 640 trucks and 1,275 trailers. The Natural Gas Liquids segment engages in the natural gas processing, NGL fractionation, storage, transportation, and terminalling activities. As of December 31, 2021, this segment owned and operated four natural gas processing plants; nine fractionation plants; 28 million barrels of NGL storage capacity; approximately 1,620 miles of active NGL transportation pipelines, as well as an additional 55 miles of pipeline that supports NGL storage facilities; 16 NGL rail terminals and approximately 3,900 NGL rail cars; and approximately 220 trailers. The company was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.