Genco Shipping & Trading (NYSE:GNK) and Okeanis Eco Tankers (NYSE:ECO) Critical Survey

Genco Shipping & Trading (NYSE:GNK) and Okeanis Eco Tankers (NYSE:ECO) are both small-cap transportation companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, dividends and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for Genco Shipping & Trading and Okeanis Eco Tankers, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Genco Shipping & Trading	0	2	1	2	3.00
Okeanis Eco Tankers	0	1	2	1	3.00

Genco Shipping & Trading presently has a consensus target price of $19.67, suggesting a potential upside of 14.37%. Okeanis Eco Tankers has a consensus target price of $34.50, suggesting a potential upside of 17.27%. Given Okeanis Eco Tankers’ higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Okeanis Eco Tankers is more favorable than Genco Shipping & Trading.

Volatility & Risk

Genco Shipping & Trading has a beta of 1.22, meaning that its share price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Okeanis Eco Tankers has a beta of -0.05, meaning that its share price is 105% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Genco Shipping & Trading and Okeanis Eco Tankers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Genco Shipping & Trading	4.40%	1.40%	1.23%
Okeanis Eco Tankers	19.52%	15.81%	6.07%

Dividends

Genco Shipping & Trading pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. Okeanis Eco Tankers pays an annual dividend of $2.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.5%. Genco Shipping & Trading pays out 176.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Okeanis Eco Tankers pays out 134.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Okeanis Eco Tankers is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Genco Shipping & Trading and Okeanis Eco Tankers”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Genco Shipping & Trading	$423.02 million	1.75	$76.40 million	$0.34	50.57
Okeanis Eco Tankers	$393.23 million	2.41	$108.86 million	$2.09	14.08

Okeanis Eco Tankers has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Genco Shipping & Trading. Okeanis Eco Tankers is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Genco Shipping & Trading, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

58.6% of Genco Shipping & Trading shares are held by institutional investors. 2.4% of Genco Shipping & Trading shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Okeanis Eco Tankers beats Genco Shipping & Trading on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Genco Shipping & Trading

Genco Shipping & Trading Ltd. is an international ship owning company, which engages in the transportation of iron ore, coal, grain, bauxite, steel products, and other drybulk cargoes. It operates through the Major Bulk and Minor Bulk segments. The Major Bulk segment focuses on Capesize vessels. The Minor Bulk segment consists of Ultramax and Supramax vessels. The company was founded on September 27, 2004 and is headquartered in New York, NY.

About Okeanis Eco Tankers

Okeanis Eco Tankers Corp., a shipping company, owns and operates tanker vessels worldwide. It operates a fleet of 14 tanker vessels comprising six modern Suezmax tankers and eight modern VLCC tankers focusing on the transportation of crude oil. The company was incorporated in 2018 and is based in Neo Faliro, Greece.