Reviewing Permianville Royalty Trust (NYSE:PVL) and Marine Petroleum Trust (NASDAQ:MARPS)

Marine Petroleum Trust (NASDAQ:MARPS) and Permianville Royalty Trust (NYSE:PVL) are both small-cap energy companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership and risk.

Risk and Volatility

Marine Petroleum Trust has a beta of 0.4, suggesting that its stock price is 60% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Permianville Royalty Trust has a beta of 0.2, suggesting that its stock price is 80% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

1.8% of Marine Petroleum Trust shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 6.8% of Permianville Royalty Trust shares are held by institutional investors. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Marine Petroleum Trust and Permianville Royalty Trust”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Marine Petroleum Trust	$1.04 million	8.81	$730,000.00	$0.31	14.77
Permianville Royalty Trust	$3.42 million	17.13	$5.14 million	$0.07	25.36

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Marine Petroleum Trust and Permianville Royalty Trust, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Marine Petroleum Trust	1	0	0	0	1.00
Permianville Royalty Trust	0	1	0	0	2.00

Profitability

This table compares Marine Petroleum Trust and Permianville Royalty Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Marine Petroleum Trust	64.77%	67.66%	67.66%
Permianville Royalty Trust	4.44%	5.04%	5.00%

Dividends

Marine Petroleum Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.4%. Permianville Royalty Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.18 per share and has a dividend yield of 10.1%. Marine Petroleum Trust pays out 64.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Permianville Royalty Trust pays out 257.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Summary

Permianville Royalty Trust beats Marine Petroleum Trust on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Marine Petroleum Trust

Marine Petroleum Trust, together with its subsidiary, Marine Petroleum Corporation, operates as a royalty trust in the United States. It has overriding royalty interest in oil and natural gas leases in the Central and Western areas of the Gulf of Mexico off the coasts of Louisiana and Texas. Marine Petroleum Trust was founded in 1956 and is based in Dallas, Texas.

About Permianville Royalty Trust

Permianville Royalty Trust operates as a statutory trust. It is involved in the acquisition and holding of net profits interest representing the right to receive 80% of the net profits from the sale of oil and natural gas production from properties located in the states of Texas, Louisiana, and New Mexico. The company was formerly known as Enduro Royalty Trust and changed its name to Permianville Royalty Trust in September 2018. Permianville Royalty Trust was incorporated in 2011 and is based in Houston, Texas.