Contrasting Mach Natural Resources (NYSE:MNR) and California Resources (NYSE:CRC)

California Resources (NYSE:CRC) and Mach Natural Resources (NYSE:MNR) are both energy companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, dividends and valuation.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for California Resources and Mach Natural Resources, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
California Resources	0	3	8	2	2.92
Mach Natural Resources	0	0	2	1	3.33

California Resources presently has a consensus price target of $60.36, indicating a potential upside of 39.76%. Mach Natural Resources has a consensus price target of $24.00, indicating a potential upside of 68.54%. Given Mach Natural Resources’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Mach Natural Resources is more favorable than California Resources.

Risk and Volatility

California Resources has a beta of 1.06, suggesting that its stock price is 6% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Mach Natural Resources has a beta of -0.28, suggesting that its stock price is 128% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares California Resources and Mach Natural Resources’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
California Resources	17.43%	12.16%	6.15%
Mach Natural Resources	25.17%	23.58%	12.00%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares California Resources and Mach Natural Resources”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
California Resources	$3.31 billion	1.16	$564.00 million	$5.51	7.84
Mach Natural Resources	$957.24 million	1.76	$346.56 million	$1.60	8.90

California Resources has higher revenue and earnings than Mach Natural Resources. California Resources is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Mach Natural Resources, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

97.8% of California Resources shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.4% of Mach Natural Resources shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.0% of California Resources shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 87.8% of Mach Natural Resources shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

California Resources pays an annual dividend of $1.55 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. Mach Natural Resources pays an annual dividend of $3.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 22.2%. California Resources pays out 28.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Mach Natural Resources pays out 197.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. California Resources has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years and Mach Natural Resources has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Summary

Mach Natural Resources beats California Resources on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About California Resources

California Resources Corporation operates as an independent oil and natural gas exploration and production, and carbon management company in the United States. The company explores, produces, and markets crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids for marketers, California refineries, and other purchasers that have access to transportation and storage facilities. It also engages in the generation and sale of electricity to the wholesale power market and utility sector; and developing various carbon capture and storage projects in California. The company was incorporated in 2014 and is based in Long Beach, California.

About Mach Natural Resources

Mach Natural Resources LP, an independent upstream oil and gas company, focuses on the acquisition, development, and production of oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids reserves in the Anadarko Basin region of Western Oklahoma, Southern Kansas, and the panhandle of Texas. It also owns a portfolio of midstream assets, as well as owns plants and water infrastructure. The company was incorporated in 2023 and is headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.