ConocoPhillips (COP) Competitors

APA (NASDAQ:APA) and ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) are both energy companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, valuation, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, earnings, risk and institutional ownership.

Do analysts recommend APA or COP?

APA currently has a consensus target price of $23.53, suggesting a potential upside of 20.91%. ConocoPhillips has a consensus target price of $120.63, suggesting a potential upside of 30.34%. Given ConocoPhillips' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe ConocoPhillips is more favorable than APA.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
APA	3 Sell rating(s)	12 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00
ConocoPhillips	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	16 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.89

Is APA or COP a better dividend stock?

APA pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.1%. ConocoPhillips pays an annual dividend of $3.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. APA pays out 36.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. ConocoPhillips pays out 39.6% 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. APA is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Do insiders and institutionals have more ownership in APA or COP?

83.0% of APA shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.4% of ConocoPhillips shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.7% of APA shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of ConocoPhillips shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media favor APA or COP?

In the previous week, ConocoPhillips had 39 more articles in the media than APA. MarketBeat recorded 65 mentions for ConocoPhillips and 26 mentions for APA. ConocoPhillips' average media sentiment score of 1.23 beat APA's score of 0.88 indicating that ConocoPhillips is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
APA	10 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	9 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
ConocoPhillips	42 Very Positive mention(s)	5 Positive mention(s)	11 Neutral mention(s)	4 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more volatility and risk, APA or COP?

APA has a beta of 1.23, indicating that its stock price is 23% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ConocoPhillips has a beta of 0.67, indicating that its stock price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has stronger earnings & valuation, APA or COP?

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

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
APA	$9.74B	0.72	$804M	$2.78	7.00
ConocoPhillips	$56.95B	2.05	$9.25B	$7.87	11.76

Is APA or COP more profitable?

ConocoPhillips has a net margin of 16.02% compared to APA's net margin of 10.53%. APA's return on equity of 21.46% beat ConocoPhillips' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
APA	10.53%	21.46%	7.11%
ConocoPhillips	16.02%	16.54%	8.64%

Summary

ConocoPhillips beats APA on 12 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.