Natural Gas Services Group (NGS) Competitors

Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) and RPC (NYSE:RES) are both small-cap energy companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, media sentiment, valuation and dividends.

Do insiders & institutionals believe in NGS or RES?

65.6% of Natural Gas Services Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 41.1% of RPC shares are held by institutional investors. 7.3% of Natural Gas Services Group shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 60.5% of RPC shares are held 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.

Which has more volatility & risk, NGS or RES?

Natural Gas Services Group has a beta of 0.57, indicating that its stock price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, RPC has a beta of 0.89, indicating that its stock price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has higher valuation & earnings, NGS or RES?

RPC has higher revenue and earnings than Natural Gas Services Group. RPC is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Natural Gas Services Group, 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
Natural Gas Services Group	$156.74M	2.09	$17.23M	$1.42	18.43
RPC	$1.42B	0.74	$91.44M	$0.26	18.37

Do analysts rate NGS or RES?

Natural Gas Services Group currently has a consensus target price of $32.50, indicating a potential upside of 24.16%. RPC has a consensus target price of $4.69, indicating a potential downside of 1.83%. Given Natural Gas Services Group's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Natural Gas Services Group is more favorable than RPC.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Natural Gas Services Group	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.50
RPC	1 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.75

Is NGS or RES a better dividend stock?

Natural Gas Services Group pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. RPC pays an annual dividend of $0.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Natural Gas Services Group pays out 28.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. RPC pays out 61.5% 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.

Is NGS or RES more profitable?

Natural Gas Services Group has a net margin of 10.92% compared to RPC's net margin of 3.77%. Natural Gas Services Group's return on equity of 7.21% beat RPC's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Natural Gas Services Group	10.92%	7.21%	3.69%
RPC	3.77%	5.65%	4.42%

Does the media refer more to NGS or RES?

In the previous week, RPC had 6 more articles in the media than Natural Gas Services Group. MarketBeat recorded 7 mentions for RPC and 1 mentions for Natural Gas Services Group. Natural Gas Services Group's average media sentiment score of 1.72 beat RPC's score of 1.26 indicating that Natural Gas Services Group is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Natural Gas Services Group	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive
RPC	6 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Natural Gas Services Group beats RPC on 12 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.