IMO vs. CNQ, SU, CVE, ARX, OVV, HSE, VRN, POU, SSL, and COP
Should you be buying Imperial Oil stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Imperial Oil include Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ), Suncor Energy (SU), Cenovus Energy (CVE), ARC Resources (ARX), Ovintiv (OVV), Husky Energy Inc. (HSE.TO) (HSE), Veren (VRN), Paramount Resources (POU), Sandstorm Gold (SSL), and Coro Mining (COP). These companies are all part of the "petroleum and natural gas" industry.
Imperial Oil vs. Its Competitors
Imperial Oil (TSE:IMO) and Canadian Natural Resources (TSE:CNQ) are both large-cap energy companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their media sentiment, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, earnings, dividends and risk.
Canadian Natural Resources has a net margin of 21.25% compared to Imperial Oil's net margin of 10.00%. Imperial Oil's return on equity of 21.23% beat Canadian Natural Resources' return on equity.
Imperial Oil has a beta of 1.78, indicating that its share price is 78% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Canadian Natural Resources has a beta of 1.89, indicating that its share price is 89% more volatile than the S&P 500.
In the previous week, Canadian Natural Resources had 7 more articles in the media than Imperial Oil. MarketBeat recorded 10 mentions for Canadian Natural Resources and 3 mentions for Imperial Oil. Canadian Natural Resources' average media sentiment score of 0.96 beat Imperial Oil's score of 0.38 indicating that Canadian Natural Resources is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
24.9% of Imperial Oil shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 77.8% of Canadian Natural Resources shares are owned by institutional investors. 71.3% of Imperial Oil shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.3% of Canadian Natural Resources shares are owned 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.
Canadian Natural Resources has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Imperial Oil. Imperial Oil is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Canadian Natural Resources, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Imperial Oil presently has a consensus price target of C$104.11, indicating a potential downside of 7.78%. Canadian Natural Resources has a consensus price target of C$54.42, indicating a potential upside of 23.93%. Given Canadian Natural Resources' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Canadian Natural Resources is more favorable than Imperial Oil.
Imperial Oil pays an annual dividend of C$2.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. Canadian Natural Resources pays an annual dividend of C$2.14 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.9%. Imperial Oil pays out 25.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Canadian Natural Resources pays out 59.4% 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.
Summary
Canadian Natural Resources beats Imperial Oil on 12 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding IMO and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Media Sentiment Over Time
This chart shows the average media sentiment of TSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
Imperial Oil Competitors List
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This page (TSE:IMO) was last updated on 7/13/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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