Comparing Cosan (NYSE:CSAN) and Neste Oyj (OTCMKTS:NTOIF)

Cosan (NYSE:CSAN) and Neste Oyj (OTCMKTS:NTOIF) are both energy companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, risk, valuation and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Cosan and Neste Oyj, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cosan	0	1	0	0	2.00
Neste Oyj	0	1	1	0	2.50

Neste Oyj has a consensus price target of $14.00, suggesting a potential downside of 25.73%. Given Neste Oyj’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Neste Oyj is more favorable than Cosan.

Dividends

Cosan pays an annual dividend of $0.31 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. Neste Oyj pays an annual dividend of $0.65 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Cosan pays out 19.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Neste Oyj pays out 60.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Cosan is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Profitability

This table compares Cosan and Neste Oyj’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cosan	N/A	N/A	N/A
Neste Oyj	N/A	N/A	N/A

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Cosan and Neste Oyj”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cosan	$40.34 billion	0.10	$1.13 billion	$1.58	5.40
Neste Oyj	N/A	N/A	N/A	$1.07	17.59

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

13.0% of Neste Oyj shares are held by institutional investors. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Neste Oyj beats Cosan on 5 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Cosan

Cosan S.A. engages in the fuel distribution business. It operates through Raízen, Compass, Moove, Rumo, and Radar segments. The company’s Raízen segment engages in the production, commercialization, origination, and trading of ethanol, bioenergy, renewable sources, and sugar; trading and resale of electricity; and distribution and commercialization of fuels and lubricants. Its Compass segment distributes piped natural gas to industrial, residential, commercial, automotive, and cogeneration customers; and develops infrastructure projects in a regasification terminal, offshore gas pipeline, and thermal generation projects utilizing natural gas, as well as commercialization of electricity and natural gas. The company’s Moove segment produces and distributes lubricants under the Comma brand. Its Rumo segment provides logistics services for rail transportation, port storage, and loading of goods, including grains and sugar; and leases locomotives, wagons, and another railroad equipment, as well as operates containers. The company’s Radar segment manages agricultural property. It operates in Brazil, England, France, Spain and Portugal, Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay and Paraguay, the United States, Asia, and internationally. Cosan S.A. was founded in 1936 and is headquartered in São Paulo, Brazil.

About Neste Oyj

Neste Oyj provides renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel in Finland, and other Nordic countries, Baltic Rim, other European countries, North and South America, and internationally. The company operates in four segments: Renewable Products, Oil Products, Marketing & Services, and Others. The Renewable Products segment produces, markets, and sells renewable diesel, sustainable aviation fuel, renewable solvents, and feedstock for bioplastics to wholesale markets. The Oil Products segment produces, markets, and sells diesel, gasoline, aviation and marine fuels, light and heavy fuel oils, and gasoline components, as well as special fuels, such as small-engine gasoline, solvents, liquid gases, and bitumen. This segment serves retailers and distributors, oil majors and trading companies, petrochemicals companies, and companies marketing lubricants and solvents, as well as road transportation, non-road uses, aviation and marine sectors. The Marketing & Services segment markets and sells cleaner fuels and oil products, and associated services to private motorists, transport companies, customers in aviation, shipping, industrial and agricultural sectors, municipalities, farmers, and heating oil customers through a network of service stations, as well as direct sales and distributors. The Others segment offers engineering solutions. The company was formerly known as Neste Oil Oyj and changed its name to Neste Oyj in June 2015. Neste Oyj was founded in 1948 and is headquartered in Espoo, Finland.