PEDEVCO (NYSE:PED) & California Resources (OTCMKTS:CRCQQ) Financial Analysis

California Resources (OTCMKTS:CRCQQ) and PEDEVCO (NYSE:PED) are both small-cap oils/energy companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, risk, valuation, profitability and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations for California Resources and PEDEVCO, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
California Resources	0	0	0	0	N/A
PEDEVCO	0	0	1	0	3.00

PEDEVCO has a consensus price target of $1.75, suggesting a potential upside of 102.34%. Given PEDEVCO’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe PEDEVCO is more favorable than California Resources.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares California Resources and PEDEVCO’s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
California Resources	$2.63 billion	0.00	-$28.00 million	N/A	N/A
PEDEVCO	$34.00 million	2.27	$260,000.00	$0.01	86.49

PEDEVCO has lower revenue, but higher earnings than California Resources.

Profitability

This table compares California Resources and PEDEVCO’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
California Resources	-95.33%	-4.31%	-3.78%
PEDEVCO	1.12%	0.38%	0.33%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

35.7% of California Resources shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 3.3% of PEDEVCO shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.1% of California Resources shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 71.1% of PEDEVCO shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

PEDEVCO beats California Resources on 9 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About California Resources

California Resources Corporation operates as an oil and natural gas exploration and production company in the State of California. The company sells crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids to marketers, California refineries, and other purchasers that have access to transportation and storage facilities. It holds interests in approximately 2.2 million net acres of mineral acreage. As of December 31, 2019, the company had net proved reserves of 644 million barrels of oil equivalent. It also engages in the generation and sale of electricity to the grid and utility customers. The company was founded in 2014 and is based in Los Angeles, California. On July 15, 2020, California Resources Corporation, along with its affiliates, filed a voluntary petition for reorganization under Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas.

About PEDEVCO

PEDEVCO Corp., an oil and gas company, focuses on the acquisition, development, and production of oil and natural gas assets in the United States. It holds interests in the Permian Basin asset covering an area of approximately 22,721 net acres located in New Mexico; and D-J Basin asset covering an area of approximately 19,214 net acres located in Wyoming. The company is headquartered in Houston, Texas.