Critical Contrast: TotalEnergies (NYSE:TTE) and Enerplus (NYSE:ERF)

Enerplus (NYSE:ERF) and TotalEnergies (NYSE:TTE) are both oils/energy companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, risk, valuation, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Risk & Volatility

Enerplus has a beta of 1.99, suggesting that its share price is 99% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, TotalEnergies has a beta of 0.72, suggesting that its share price is 28% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Enerplus and TotalEnergies, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Enerplus	0	0	5	0	3.00
TotalEnergies	0	6	0	0	2.00

Enerplus currently has a consensus price target of $21.69, indicating a potential upside of 7.13%. TotalEnergies has a consensus price target of $70.75, indicating a potential downside of 2.70%. Given Enerplus’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Enerplus is more favorable than TotalEnergies.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Enerplus and TotalEnergies’ top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Enerplus	$1.69 billion	2.45	$456.08 million	$2.10	9.67
TotalEnergies	$218.95 billion	0.78	$21.38 billion	$8.67	8.40

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

58.4% of Enerplus shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 13.2% of TotalEnergies shares are held by institutional investors. 0.4% of Enerplus shares are held 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.

Profitability

This table compares Enerplus and TotalEnergies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Enerplus	27.67%	40.36%	23.44%
TotalEnergies	9.19%	19.61%	8.08%

Dividends

Enerplus pays an annual dividend of $0.26 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. TotalEnergies pays an annual dividend of $2.35 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.2%. Enerplus pays out 12.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. TotalEnergies pays out 27.1% 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. Enerplus has increased its dividend for 4 consecutive years.

Summary

Enerplus beats TotalEnergies on 13 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Enerplus

Enerplus Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, explores and develops crude oil and natural gas in the United States. Its oil and natural gas properties are located primarily in North Dakota, Colorado, and Pennsylvania. The company was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.

About TotalEnergies

TotalEnergies SE, a multi-energy company, produces and markets oil and biofuels, natural gas, green gases, renewables, and electricity in France, rest of Europe, North America, Africa, and internationally. It operates through five segments: Exploration & Production, Integrated LNG, Integrated Power, Refining & Chemicals, and Marketing & Services. The Exploration & Production segment is involved in the exploration and production of oil and natural gas. The Integrated LNG segment comprises the integrated gas chain, including upstream and midstream liquified natural gas (LNG) activities, as well as biogas, hydrogen, and gas trading activities. The Integrated Power segment includes generation, storage, electricity trading, and B2B-B2C distribution of gas and electricity. The Refining & Chemicals segment consists of refining, petrochemicals, and specialty chemicals. This segment also includes oil supply, trading, and marine shipping activities. The Marketing & Services segment supplies and markets petroleum products. The company was formerly known as TOTAL SE and changed its name to TotalEnergies SE in June 2021. TotalEnergies SE was founded in 1924 and is headquartered in Courbevoie, France.