KNOT Offshore Partners (KNOP) Competitors

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

Is KNOP or GSL more profitable?

Global Ship Lease has a net margin of 53.31% compared to KNOT Offshore Partners' net margin of 4.36%. Global Ship Lease's return on equity of 25.56% beat KNOT Offshore Partners' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
KNOT Offshore Partners	4.36%	4.35%	1.43%
Global Ship Lease	53.31%	25.56%	15.65%

Do analysts rate KNOP or GSL?

Global Ship Lease has a consensus price target of $29.00, indicating a potential upside of 8.49%. Given Global Ship Lease's higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Global Ship Lease is more favorable than KNOT Offshore Partners.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
KNOT Offshore Partners	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	4.00
Global Ship Lease	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50

Is KNOP or GSL a better dividend stock?

KNOT Offshore Partners pays an annual dividend of $0.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Global Ship Lease pays an annual dividend of $2.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.9%. KNOT Offshore Partners pays out 24.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Global Ship Lease pays out 19.8% 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 more volatility and risk, KNOP or GSL?

KNOT Offshore Partners has a beta of -0.11, suggesting that its stock price is 111% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Global Ship Lease has a beta of 1.19, suggesting that its stock price is 19% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media refer more to KNOP or GSL?

In the previous week, KNOT Offshore Partners had 1 more articles in the media than Global Ship Lease. MarketBeat recorded 7 mentions for KNOT Offshore Partners and 6 mentions for Global Ship Lease. Global Ship Lease's average media sentiment score of 0.36 beat KNOT Offshore Partners' score of 0.32 indicating that Global Ship Lease is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
KNOT Offshore Partners	0 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Global Ship Lease	1 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Which has better valuation & earnings, KNOP or GSL?

Global Ship Lease has higher revenue and earnings than KNOT Offshore Partners. Global Ship Lease is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than KNOT Offshore Partners, 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
KNOT Offshore Partners	$318.60M	0.74	$13.93M	$0.41	16.73
Global Ship Lease	$715.23M	1.32	$353.63M	$10.59	2.52

Do insiders & institutionals have more ownership in KNOP or GSL?

26.8% of KNOT Offshore Partners shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 50.1% of Global Ship Lease shares are owned by institutional investors. 7.4% of Global Ship Lease shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Global Ship Lease beats KNOT Offshore Partners on 16 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.