Financial Contrast: Sable Offshore (NYSE:SOC) vs. Shell (NYSE:SHEL)

Sable Offshore (NYSE:SOC) and Shell (NYSE:SHEL) are both oils/energy companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends and profitability.

Volatility & Risk

Sable Offshore has a beta of 0.03, indicating that its stock price is 97% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Shell has a beta of 0.62, indicating that its stock price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Sable Offshore and Shell, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sable Offshore	0	0	1	0	3.00
Shell	0	2	1	0	2.33

Sable Offshore presently has a consensus target price of $20.00, suggesting a potential upside of 90.84%. Shell has a consensus target price of $67.00, suggesting a potential downside of 8.41%. Given Sable Offshore’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Sable Offshore is more favorable than Shell.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Sable Offshore and Shell’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sable Offshore	N/A	N/A	-$32.18 million	N/A	N/A
Shell	$323.18 billion	0.73	$19.36 billion	$5.66	12.92

Shell has higher revenue and earnings than Sable Offshore.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

26.2% of Sable Offshore shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 28.6% of Shell shares are owned by institutional investors. 14.3% of Sable Offshore shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Shell shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Sable Offshore and Shell’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sable Offshore	N/A	N/A	-42.39%
Shell	5.99%	14.69%	6.79%

Summary

Shell beats Sable Offshore on 7 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Sable Offshore

Sable Offshore Corp. engages in the oil and gas exploration and development activities in the United States. It operates through three platforms located offshore California and an onshore processing facility comprised of 16 federal leases across approximately 76,000 acres. The company was formerly known as Flame Acquisition Corp. and changed its name to Sable Offshore Corp. in February 2024. Sable Offshore Corp. was incorporated in 2020 and is based 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.