Contrasting Baker Hughes (NASDAQ:BKR) & Akastor ASA (OTCMKTS:AKKVF)

Baker Hughes (NASDAQ:BKR) and Akastor ASA (OTCMKTS:AKKVF) are both oils/energy companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Baker Hughes and Akastor ASA, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Baker Hughes	0	2	17	0	2.89
Akastor ASA	0	0	0	0	N/A

Baker Hughes currently has a consensus target price of $44.12, suggesting a potential upside of 14.35%. Given Baker Hughes’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Baker Hughes is more favorable than Akastor ASA.

Profitability

This table compares Baker Hughes and Akastor ASA’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Baker Hughes	8.20%	13.77%	5.86%
Akastor ASA	N/A	N/A	N/A

Dividends

Baker Hughes pays an annual dividend of $0.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Akastor ASA pays an annual dividend of $3.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 246.0%. Baker Hughes pays out 37.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Akastor ASA pays out -189.8% 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. Akastor ASA is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

92.1% of Baker Hughes shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 19.9% of Akastor ASA shares are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of Baker Hughes shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Baker Hughes and Akastor ASA”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Baker Hughes	$27.30 billion	1.40	$1.94 billion	$2.23	17.30
Akastor ASA	N/A	N/A	N/A	($1.62)	-0.77

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

Summary

Baker Hughes beats Akastor ASA on 10 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Baker Hughes

Baker Hughes Company provides a portfolio of technologies and services to energy and industrial value chain worldwide. The company operates through Oilfield Services & Equipment (OFSE) and Industrial & Energy Technology (IET) segments. The OFSE segment designs and manufactures products and provides related services, including exploration, appraisal, development, production, rejuvenation, and decommissioning for onshore and offshore oilfield operations. This segment also provides drilling services, drill bits, and drilling and completions fluids; completions, intervention, measurements, pressure pumping, and wireline services; artificial lift systems, and oilfield and industrial chemicals; subsea projects and services, flexible pipe systems, and surface pressure control systems; and integrated well services and solutions. It serves oil and natural gas companies; the United States and international independent oil and natural gas companies; national or state-owned oil companies; engineering, procurement, and construction contractors; geothermal companies; and other oilfield service companies. The IET segment provides gas technology equipment, including drivers, driven equipment, flow control, and turnkey solutions for the mechanical-drive, compression, and power-generation applications; and energy sectors, such as oil and gas, LNG operations, petrochemical, and carbon solutions. This segment also provides rack-based vibration monitoring equipment and sensors; integrated asset performance management products; inspection services; pumps, valves, and gears; precision sensors and instrumentation, and condition monitoring solutions. It serves upstream, midstream, downstream, onshore, offshore, and small and large scale customers. The company was formerly known as Baker Hughes, a GE company and changed its name to Baker Hughes Company in October 2019. Baker Hughes Company was incorporated in 2016 and is based in Houston, Texas.

About Akastor ASA

Akastor ASA operates as an oilfield services investment company in Norway and internationally. The company offers vessel-based subsea well construction and intervention services to the oil and gas industry. It also provides anchor handling, towing, and supply services to offshore oil and gas fields. In addition, the company offers a range of offshore drilling equipment products and packages. It owns offshore vessels and anchor handling tug supply vessels. Akastor ASA was founded in 1841 and is based in Bærum, Norway.