Global Ship Lease (GSL) Competitors

Global Ship Lease (NYSE:GSL) and Costamare (NYSE:CMRE) are both small-cap transportation companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, media sentiment, valuation, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and risk.

Is GSL or CMRE more profitable?

Global Ship Lease has a net margin of 53.09% compared to Costamare's net margin of 17.10%. Global Ship Lease's return on equity of 24.81% beat Costamare's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Global Ship Lease	53.09%	24.81%	15.30%
Costamare	17.10%	13.67%	6.95%

Do analysts recommend GSL or CMRE?

Global Ship Lease presently has a consensus price target of $30.50, indicating a potential downside of 0.53%. Costamare has a consensus price target of $13.00, indicating a potential upside of 19.54%. Given Costamare's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Costamare is more favorable than Global Ship Lease.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Global Ship Lease	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50
Costamare	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00

Is GSL or CMRE a better dividend stock?

Global Ship Lease pays an annual dividend of $2.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.8%. Costamare pays an annual dividend of $0.46 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.2%. Global Ship Lease pays out 19.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Costamare pays out 19.5% 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. Global Ship Lease has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Global Ship Lease is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Which has higher valuation and earnings, GSL or CMRE?

Global Ship Lease has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Costamare. Global Ship Lease is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Costamare, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Global Ship Lease	$711.05M	1.53	$353.63M	$10.77	2.85
Costamare	$2.08B	0.63	$319.92M	$2.36	4.61

Does the media prefer GSL or CMRE?

In the previous week, Global Ship Lease had 12 more articles in the media than Costamare. MarketBeat recorded 16 mentions for Global Ship Lease and 4 mentions for Costamare. Global Ship Lease's average media sentiment score of 0.42 beat Costamare's score of 0.35 indicating that Global Ship Lease is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Global Ship Lease	4 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	6 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Costamare	1 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Which has more volatility & risk, GSL or CMRE?

Global Ship Lease has a beta of 1.21, suggesting that its share price is 21% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Costamare has a beta of 1.28, suggesting that its share price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do insiders and institutionals believe in GSL or CMRE?

50.1% of Global Ship Lease shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 58.1% of Costamare shares are held by institutional investors. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Global Ship Lease beats Costamare on 12 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.