Financial Survey: Permianville Royalty Trust (NYSE:PVL) and GeoPark (NYSE:GPRK)

GeoPark (NYSE:GPRK) and Permianville Royalty Trust (NYSE:PVL) are both small-cap oils/energy companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, dividends and valuation.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for GeoPark and Permianville Royalty Trust, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
GeoPark	0	0	2	0	3.00
Permianville Royalty Trust	0	0	0	0	0.00

GeoPark presently has a consensus target price of $12.50, suggesting a potential upside of 27.75%. Given GeoPark’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe GeoPark is more favorable than Permianville Royalty Trust.

Volatility and Risk

GeoPark has a beta of 1.35, suggesting that its stock price is 35% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Permianville Royalty Trust has a beta of 0.88, suggesting that its stock price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

68.2% of GeoPark shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 6.8% of Permianville Royalty Trust shares are held by institutional investors. 1.5% of GeoPark shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

GeoPark pays an annual dividend of $0.59 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.0%. Permianville Royalty Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.13 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.7%. GeoPark pays out 29.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Permianville Royalty Trust pays out 61.9% 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.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
GeoPark	14.97%	57.93%	10.60%
Permianville Royalty Trust	12.60%	13.73%	13.67%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares GeoPark and Permianville Royalty Trust”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
GeoPark	$756.60 million	0.66	$111.07 million	$1.97	4.97
Permianville Royalty Trust	$45.21 million	1.09	$10.60 million	$0.21	7.14

GeoPark has higher revenue and earnings than Permianville Royalty Trust. GeoPark 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.

Summary

GeoPark beats Permianville Royalty Trust on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About GeoPark

GeoPark Limited operates as an oil and natural gas exploration and production company primarily in Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, and other Latin American countries. It engages in the exploration, development, and production of oil and gas reserves. The company was formerly known as GeoPark Holdings Limited and changed its name to GeoPark Limited in July 2013. GeoPark Limited was founded in 2002 and is based in Bogotá, Colombia.

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.