Analyzing Seanergy Maritime (NASDAQ:SHIP) & Nordic American Tankers (NYSE:NAT)

Nordic American Tankers (NYSE:NAT) and Seanergy Maritime (NASDAQ:SHIP) are both small-cap transportation companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, risk, dividends and profitability.

Dividends

Nordic American Tankers pays an annual dividend of $0.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.5%. Seanergy Maritime pays an annual dividend of $0.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Nordic American Tankers pays out 400.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Seanergy Maritime pays out 27.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Nordic American Tankers has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Nordic American Tankers is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Profitability

This table compares Nordic American Tankers and Seanergy Maritime’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Nordic American Tankers	7.58%	2.64%	1.59%
Seanergy Maritime	10.17%	5.70%	2.60%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

44.3% of Nordic American Tankers shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 29.4% of Seanergy Maritime shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.9% of Nordic American Tankers shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 4.7% of Seanergy Maritime shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

Nordic American Tankers has a beta of -0.22, indicating that its share price is 122% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Seanergy Maritime has a beta of 0.74, indicating that its share price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Nordic American Tankers and Seanergy Maritime”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Nordic American Tankers	$225.10 million	3.08	$46.64 million	$0.07	46.79
Seanergy Maritime	$167.46 million	1.00	$43.47 million	$0.73	10.95

Nordic American Tankers has higher revenue and earnings than Seanergy Maritime. Seanergy Maritime is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Nordic American Tankers, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Nordic American Tankers and Seanergy Maritime, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Nordic American Tankers	0	1	0	0	2.00
Seanergy Maritime	0	0	1	0	3.00

Nordic American Tankers presently has a consensus price target of $3.00, suggesting a potential downside of 8.40%. Seanergy Maritime has a consensus price target of $11.00, suggesting a potential upside of 37.67%. Given Seanergy Maritime’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Seanergy Maritime is more favorable than Nordic American Tankers.

Summary

Seanergy Maritime beats Nordic American Tankers on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Nordic American Tankers

Nordic American Tankers Limited, a tanker company, acquires and charters double-hull tankers in Bermuda and internationally. It operates a fleet of 20 Suezmax crude oil tankers. The company was incorporated in 1995 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda.

About Seanergy Maritime

Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp., a shipping company, provides seaborne transportation of dry bulk commodities worldwide. It operates a fleet of 16 Capesize dry bulk vessels and one Newcastlemax dry bulk vessel with a cargo-carrying capacity of approximately 3,054,820 dwt. The company was formerly known as Seanergy Merger Corp. and changed its name to Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp. in July 2008. Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp. was incorporated in 2008 and is based in Glyfada, Greece.