SilverBow Resources (NYSE:SBOW) versus Shell (NYSE:SHEL) Financial Contrast

SilverBow Resources (NYSE:SBOW) and Shell (NYSE:SHEL) are both oils/energy companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, profitability, valuation and risk.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

91.8% of SilverBow Resources shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 28.6% of Shell shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.0% of SilverBow Resources shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Shell shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for SilverBow Resources and Shell, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SilverBow Resources	0	4	3	0	2.43
Shell	0	2	5	0	2.71

SilverBow Resources currently has a consensus price target of $45.33, indicating a potential upside of 25.58%. Shell has a consensus price target of $85.00, indicating a potential upside of 18.90%. Given SilverBow Resources’ higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe SilverBow Resources is more favorable than Shell.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares SilverBow Resources and Shell’s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
SilverBow Resources	$652.36 million	1.39	$297.72 million	$7.40	4.79
Shell	$323.18 billion	0.70	$19.36 billion	$5.42	13.21

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

Profitability

This table compares SilverBow Resources and Shell’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SilverBow Resources	24.41%	16.48%	7.66%
Shell	5.83%	13.83%	6.44%

Risk & Volatility

SilverBow Resources has a beta of 2.58, meaning that its stock price is 158% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Shell has a beta of 0.59, meaning that its stock price is 41% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

SilverBow Resources beats Shell on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About SilverBow Resources

SilverBow Resources, Inc., an independent oil and gas company, exploration, develops, acquires, and operates oil and natural gas properties in the Eagle Ford shale and Austin Chalk located in South Texas. The company was formerly known as Swift Energy Company and changed its name to SilverBow Resources, Inc. in May 2017. SilverBow Resources, Inc. was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

About Shell

Shell plc operates as an energy and petrochemical company Europe, Asia, Oceania, Africa, the United States, and Rest of the Americas. The company operates through Integrated Gas, Upstream, Marketing, Chemicals and Products, and Renewables and Energy Solutions segments. It explores for and extracts crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids; markets and transports oil and gas; produces gas-to-liquids fuels and other products; and operates upstream and midstream infrastructure to deliver gas to market. The company also markets and trades natural gas, liquefied natural gas (LNG), crude oil, electricity, carbon-emission rights; and markets and sells LNG as a fuel for heavy-duty vehicles. In addition, it trades in and refines crude oil and other feed stocks, such as low-carbon fuels, lubricants, bitumen, sulphur, gasoline, diesel, aviation fuel, and marine fuel; produces and sells petrochemicals for industrial use; and manages oil sands activities. Further, the company produces base chemicals comprising ethylene, propylene, and aromatics, as well as intermediate chemicals, such as styrene monomer, propylene oxide, solvents, detergent alcohols, ethylene oxide, and ethylene glycol. Additionally, it generates electricity through wind and solar resources; produces and sells hydrogen; and provides electric vehicle charging services. The company was formerly known as Royal Dutch Shell plc and changed its name to Shell plc in January 2022. Shell plc was founded in 1907 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.