Critical Review: United Maritime (USEA) & Its Rivals

United Maritime (NASDAQ:USEA) is one of 29 public companies in the “Water transportation” industry, but how does it contrast to its competitors? We will compare United Maritime to similar businesses based on the strength of its valuation, dividends, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk and institutional ownership.

Profitability

This table compares United Maritime and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
United Maritime	85.01%	65.37%	28.79%
United Maritime Competitors	16.57%	4.07%	6.34%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings for United Maritime and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
United Maritime	0	0	0	0	N/A
United Maritime Competitors	300	1134	1690	48	2.47

As a group, “Water transportation” companies have a potential upside of 28.62%. Given United Maritime’s competitors higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe United Maritime has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Dividends

United Maritime pays an annual dividend of 0.30 per share and has a dividend yield of 12.8%. United Maritime pays out 8.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Water transportation” companies pay a dividend yield of 4.0% and pay out 26.0% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. United Maritime is clearly a better dividend stock than its competitors, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares United Maritime and its competitors gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
United Maritime	$33.42 million	$37.49 million	0.68
United Maritime Competitors	$2.88 billion	-$430.12 million	8.57

United Maritime’s competitors have higher revenue, but lower earnings than United Maritime. United Maritime is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

1.2% of United Maritime shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 56.5% of shares of all “Water transportation” companies are held by institutional investors. 7.7% of shares of all “Water transportation” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

United Maritime has a beta of 0.46, meaning that its share price is 54% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, United Maritime’s competitors have a beta of -0.01, meaning that their average share price is 101% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

United Maritime beats its competitors on 7 of the 12 factors compared.

United Maritime Company Profile

United Maritime Corporation, a shipping company, specializing in seaborne transportation services worldwide. It operates a fleet of one LR2 tanker vessel, three Capesize dry bulk vessels, one Kamsarmax dry bulk vessel, and one Panamax dry bulk vessel with an aggregate cargo-carrying capacity of approximately 795,812 dwt. The company was incorporated in 2022 and is based in Glyfada, Greece.