Navios Maritime Partners (NYSE:NMM) and Scorpio Tankers (NYSE:STNG) are both small-cap transportation companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, profitability, risk and valuation.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a summary of recent ratings for Navios Maritime Partners and Scorpio Tankers, as reported by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score |
|---|
| Navios Maritime Partners | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3.00 |
| Scorpio Tankers | 1 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 2.56 |
Navios Maritime Partners currently has a consensus price target of $20.3333, indicating a potential downside of 24.61%. Scorpio Tankers has a consensus price target of $22.00, indicating a potential upside of 20.02%. Given Scorpio Tankers' higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Scorpio Tankers is more favorable than Navios Maritime Partners.
Volatility & Risk
Navios Maritime Partners has a beta of 2.56, meaning that its share price is 156% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Scorpio Tankers has a beta of 1.18, meaning that its share price is 18% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Earnings & Valuation
This table compares Navios Maritime Partners and Scorpio Tankers' revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio |
|---|
| Navios Maritime Partners | $219.38 million | 1.39 | $-62,130,000.00 | $2.43 | 11.10 |
| Scorpio Tankers | $704.33 million | 1.51 | $-48,490,000.00 | ($0.94) | -19.50 |
Scorpio Tankers has higher revenue and earnings than Navios Maritime Partners. Scorpio Tankers is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Navios Maritime Partners, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Dividends
Navios Maritime Partners pays an annual dividend of $0.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Scorpio Tankers pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Navios Maritime Partners pays out 8.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Scorpio Tankers pays out -42.6% 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. Navios Maritime Partners has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years and Scorpio Tankers has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Scorpio Tankers is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Profitability
This table compares Navios Maritime Partners and Scorpio Tankers' net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets |
|---|
| Navios Maritime Partners | -37.17% | 1.30% | 0.74% |
| Scorpio Tankers | 18.26% | 8.82% | 3.49% |
Institutional and Insider Ownership
3.4% of Navios Maritime Partners shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 38.7% of Scorpio Tankers shares are held by institutional investors. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Summary
Scorpio Tankers beats Navios Maritime Partners on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.
