Contrasting YPF Sociedad Anónima (NYSE:YPF) & China Petroleum & Chemical (OTCMKTS:SNPMF)

China Petroleum & Chemical (OTCMKTS:SNPMF) and YPF Sociedad Anónima (NYSE:YPF) are both energy companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation and risk.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

6.4% of China Petroleum & Chemical shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 10.1% of YPF Sociedad Anónima shares are held by institutional investors. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for China Petroleum & Chemical and YPF Sociedad Anónima, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
China Petroleum & Chemical	0	0	0	0	N/A
YPF Sociedad Anónima	0	5	2	0	2.29

YPF Sociedad Anónima has a consensus target price of $24.77, indicating a potential upside of 4.68%. Given YPF Sociedad Anónima’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe YPF Sociedad Anónima is more favorable than China Petroleum & Chemical.

Profitability

This table compares China Petroleum & Chemical and YPF Sociedad Anónima’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
China Petroleum & Chemical	N/A	N/A	N/A
YPF Sociedad Anónima	-4.57%	22.86%	8.78%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares China Petroleum & Chemical and YPF Sociedad Anónima”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
China Petroleum & Chemical	N/A	N/A	N/A	$0.56	1.07
YPF Sociedad Anónima	$17.66 billion	0.53	-$1.31 billion	($2.56)	-9.24

China Petroleum & Chemical has higher earnings, but lower revenue than YPF Sociedad Anónima. YPF Sociedad Anónima is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than China Petroleum & Chemical, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

YPF Sociedad Anónima beats China Petroleum & Chemical on 6 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About China Petroleum & Chemical

China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, an energy and chemical company, engages in the oil and gas and chemical operations in Mainland China, Singapore, and internationally. It operates through five segments: Exploration and Production, Refining, Marketing and Distribution, Chemicals, and Corporate and Others. The company explores and develops oil fields; produces natural gas; produces, processes, purifies, imports, and trades in crude oil; manufactures, sells, and trades in petroleum products; owns and operates oil depots and service stations; and produces, distributes, and sells refined petroleum products, including gasoline and diesel. It also manufactures, sells, markets, and distributes petrochemicals and derivative petrochemical products, and other chemical products, such as basic organic chemicals, synthetic resins, synthetic fiber monomers and polymers, synthetic fibers, synthetic rubber, and chemical fertilizers, as well as ethylene. In addition, the company explores, produces, and sells petroleum and natural gas; produces, stores, transports, and sells petrochemical and coal chemical products; produces and sells catalyst products, lubricant base oil, polyester chips and fibers, plastics, and petrochemical materials; and offers crude oil pipeline transportation services. Further, it engages in import and export of petroleum, natural gas, petroleum products, petrochemical and chemical products, and other commodities and technologies; research, development, and application of technologies and information; hydrogen energy business and related services, such as hydrogen production, storage, transportation, and sales; and battery charging and swapping, solar energy, wind energy and other new energy business and related services. The company was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Beijing, China. China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation is a subsidiary of China Petrochemical Corporation.

About YPF Sociedad Anónima

YPF Sociedad Anónima, an energy company, engages in the oil and gas upstream and downstream activities in Argentina. Its upstream operations include the exploration, exploitation, and production of crude oil, and natural gas. The company’s downstream operations include petrochemical production and crude oil refining; transportation and distribution refined and petrochemical products; commercialization of crude oil, petrochemical products, and specialties. Its gas and power operations include transportation, commercialization, and distribution of natural gas; operation of regasification terminals; conditioning, processing, and separation of natural gas; and power generation. The company had interests in oil and gas fields. It also had a retail distribution network and retail service stations. In addition, the company owns and operates refineries, as well as maintains terminal facilities Argentine ports. Further, it participates in power generation plants; offers diesel, fertilizers, lubricants, phytosanitary products, and ensiling bags; and supplies diesel, gasoline, fuel oil, coal, asphalts, paraffin, and sulfur, CO2, decanted oil, and aromatic extract. The company was incorporated in 1977 and is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.