Critical Review: Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM) & Lone Pine Resources (OTCMKTS:LPRIQ)

Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM) and Lone Pine Resources (OTCMKTS:LPRIQ) are both oils/energy companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings and risk.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Viper Energy and Lone Pine Resources”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Viper Energy	$827.70 million	12.44	$200.09 million	$2.33	20.74
Lone Pine Resources	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Viper Energy has higher revenue and earnings than Lone Pine Resources.

Profitability

This table compares Viper Energy and Lone Pine Resources’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Viper Energy	24.65%	6.72%	4.98%
Lone Pine Resources	N/A	N/A	N/A

Institutional and Insider Ownership

87.7% of Viper Energy shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of Viper Energy shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Viper Energy and Lone Pine Resources, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Viper Energy	0	0	11	0	3.00
Lone Pine Resources	0	0	0	0	0.00

Viper Energy currently has a consensus target price of $59.55, suggesting a potential upside of 23.21%. Given Viper Energy’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Viper Energy is more favorable than Lone Pine Resources.

Summary

Viper Energy beats Lone Pine Resources on 9 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Viper Energy

Viper Energy, Inc. engages in the acquisition of oil and natural gas properties. It owns, acquires, and exploits oil and natural gas properties in North America. The company was founded on February 27, 2014 and is headquartered in Midland, TX.

About Lone Pine Resources

Lone Pine Resources Inc. (Lone Pine) is an independent oil and gas exploration, development, and production company with operations in Canada within the provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Quebec and the Northwest Territories. The Company focuses on the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, which includes its Narraway/Ojay and Wild River fields in the Deep Basin and its Evi field in the Peace River Arch. Lone Pine is a wholly owned subsidiary of Forest Oil Corporation, which is an independent oil and gas company engaged in the acquisition, exploration, development and production of oil and natural gas. As of December 31, 2009, the Company had approximately 322 billions of cubic feet equivalent of estimated proved reserves of which approximately 69% was natural gas and approximately 64% was classified as proved developed. As of September 30, 2010, it had approximately 1.1 million gross (.8 million net) acres of land (approximately 80% of which is undeveloped).