Reviewing EQT (NYSE:EQT) & Permianville Royalty Trust (NYSE:PVL)

Permianville Royalty Trust (NYSE:PVL) and EQT (NYSE:EQT) are both oils/energy companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, risk, dividends, earnings and institutional ownership.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

6.8% of Permianville Royalty Trust shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.8% of EQT shares are held by institutional investors. 0.6% of EQT 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.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Permianville Royalty Trust	31.22%	24.89%	24.89%
EQT	10.96%	4.57%	2.66%

Risk & Volatility

Permianville Royalty Trust has a beta of 0.93, meaning that its share price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, EQT has a beta of 1.09, meaning that its share price is 9% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

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

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Permianville Royalty Trust	0	0	0	0	N/A
EQT	0	8	9	0	2.53

EQT has a consensus target price of $44.56, indicating a potential upside of 10.66%. Given EQT’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe EQT is more favorable than Permianville Royalty Trust.

Dividends

Permianville Royalty Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.07 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.8%. EQT pays an annual dividend of $0.63 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Permianville Royalty Trust pays out 16.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. EQT pays out 45.7% 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. EQT has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Permianville Royalty Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Permianville Royalty Trust and EQT’s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Permianville Royalty Trust	$10.35 million	4.62	$10.60 million	$0.43	3.37
EQT	$6.91 billion	2.57	$1.74 billion	$1.38	29.18

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

Summary

EQT beats Permianville Royalty Trust on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About EQT

EQT Corporation operates as a natural gas production company in the United States. The company sells natural gas and natural gas liquids to marketers, utilities, and industrial customers through pipelines located in the Appalachian Basin. It also offers marketing services and contractual pipeline capacity management services. The company was formerly known as Equitable Resources Inc. and changed its name to EQT Corporation in February 2009. EQT Corporation was founded in 1878 and is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.