Reviewing YPF Sociedad Anónima (NYSE:YPF) and Peabody Energy (NYSE:BTU)

Peabody Energy (NYSE:BTU) and YPF Sociedad Anónima (NYSE:YPF) are both energy companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, risk, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Peabody Energy and YPF Sociedad Anónima, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Peabody Energy	1	3	2	0	2.17
YPF Sociedad Anónima	0	3	3	0	2.50

Peabody Energy currently has a consensus price target of $33.88, indicating a potential upside of 48.13%. YPF Sociedad Anónima has a consensus price target of $60.33, indicating a potential upside of 19.12%. Given Peabody Energy’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Peabody Energy is more favorable than YPF Sociedad Anónima.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Peabody Energy and YPF Sociedad Anónima”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Peabody Energy	$3.86 billion	0.72	-$52.90 million	($1.50)	-15.25
YPF Sociedad Anónima	$20.59 billion	0.97	-$826.00 million	$1.90	26.66

Peabody Energy has higher earnings, but lower revenue than YPF Sociedad Anónima. Peabody Energy is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than YPF Sociedad Anónima, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility and Risk

Peabody Energy has a beta of 0.33, suggesting that its share price is 67% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, YPF Sociedad Anónima has a beta of 1.22, suggesting that its share price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

87.4% of Peabody Energy shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 10.1% of YPF Sociedad Anónima shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of Peabody Energy shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Peabody Energy and YPF Sociedad Anónima’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Peabody Energy	-4.56%	-5.22%	-3.22%
YPF Sociedad Anónima	3.60%	10.86%	4.20%

Dividends

Peabody Energy pays an annual dividend of $0.30 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. YPF Sociedad Anónima pays an annual dividend of $0.14 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.3%. Peabody Energy pays out -20.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. YPF Sociedad Anónima pays out 7.3% 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. Peabody Energy has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Peabody Energy is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

YPF Sociedad Anónima beats Peabody Energy on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Peabody Energy

Peabody Energy Corporation engages in coal mining business in the United States, Japan, Taiwan, Australia, India, Brazil, Belgium, Chile, France, Indonesia, China, Vietnam, South Korea, Germany, and internationally. The company operates through Seaborne Thermal, Seaborne Metallurgical, Powder River Basin, Other U.S. Thermal, and Corporate and Other segments. It is involved in the mining, preparation, and sale of thermal coal primarily to electric utilities; mining bituminous and sub-bituminous coal deposits; low sulfur and high British thermal unit thermal coal; and mining metallurgical coal, such as hard coking coal, semi-hard coking coal, semi-soft coking coal, and pulverized coal injection coal. The company supplies coal primarily to electricity generators, industrial facilities, and steel manufacturers. It also engages in marketing and brokering of coal from other coal producers; trading of coal and freight-related contracts, as well as provides transportation-related services. The company was founded in 1883 and is headquartered in Saint Louis, Missouri.

About YPF Sociedad Anónima

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.