Head to Head Review: Kirby (NYSE:KEX) vs. Castor Maritime (NASDAQ:CTRM)

Castor Maritime (NASDAQ:CTRM) and Kirby (NYSE:KEX) are both transportation companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, earnings and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Castor Maritime and Kirby, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Castor Maritime	1	0	0	0	1.00
Kirby	0	3	3	0	2.50

Kirby has a consensus price target of $114.50, indicating a potential upside of 37.22%. Given Kirby’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Kirby is more favorable than Castor Maritime.

Risk and Volatility

Castor Maritime has a beta of 0.98, suggesting that its share price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Kirby has a beta of 1, suggesting that its share price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

1.1% of Castor Maritime shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.2% of Kirby shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.9% of Kirby 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.

Profitability

This table compares Castor Maritime and Kirby’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Castor Maritime	-65.40%	-3.69%	-2.82%
Kirby	9.25%	10.02%	5.63%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Castor Maritime and Kirby”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Castor Maritime	$66.24 million	0.31	$14.62 million	($3.18)	-0.67
Kirby	$3.27 billion	1.43	$286.71 million	$5.29	15.77

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

Summary

Kirby beats Castor Maritime on 14 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Castor Maritime

Castor Maritime Inc. provides shipping services worldwide. The company operates through Dry Bulk Vessels and Containerships segments. It offers seaborne transportation services for dry bulk cargo; and commodities, such as iron ore, coal, soybeans, etc. As of December 31, 2023, the company owned and operated a fleet of 17 vessels primarily consisting of one Capesize, five Kamsarmax, two Handysize tanker vessels, and nine Panamax dry bulk vessels, as well as two 2,700 TEU containership vessels. Castor Maritime Inc. was incorporated in 2017 and is based in Limassol, Cyprus.

About Kirby

Kirby Corporation operates domestic tank barges in the United States. Its Marine Transportation segment provides marine transportation service and towing vessel transporting bulk liquid product, as well as operates tank barge throughout the Mississippi River System, on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, coastwise along three United States coasts, and in Alaska and Hawaii. It also transports petrochemicals, black oils, refined petroleum products, and agricultural chemicals by tank barges; and operates offshore dry-bulk barges and tugboat units that are engaged in the offshore transportation of dry-bulk cargos in the United States coastal trade. It owns and operates 1,076 inland tank barges, approximately 281 inland towboats, 28 coastal tank barges, 25 coastal tugboats, 4 offshore dry-bulk cargo barges, 4 offshore tugboats, and a docking tugboat. Its Distribution and Services segment sells after-market service and genuine replacement parts for engines, transmissions, reduction gears, electric motors, drives, and controls, electrical distribution and control systems, energy storage battery systems, and related oilfield service equipment; rebuilds component parts or diesel engines, transmissions and reduction gears, and related equipment used in oilfield services, marine, power generation, on-highway, and other industrial applications; rents generators, industrial compressors, high capacity lift trucks, and refrigeration trailers; and manufactures and remanufactures oilfield service equipment, including pressure pumping units, as well as manufacturers electric power generation equipment, specialized electrical distribution and control equipment, and high capacity energy storage/battery systems. It serves to various companies, the United States government, and pleasure crafts. The company was formerly known as Kirby Exploration Company, Inc. and changed its name to Kirby Corporation in 1990. Kirby Corporation was founded in 1921 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.