Financial Review: Tsakos Energy Navigation (NYSE:TEN) versus Genco Shipping & Trading (NYSE:GNK)

Genco Shipping & Trading (NYSE:GNK) and Tsakos Energy Navigation (NYSE:TEN) are both small-cap transportation companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Genco Shipping & Trading and Tsakos Energy Navigation, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Genco Shipping & Trading	0	1	4	1	3.00
Tsakos Energy Navigation	0	1	1	1	3.00

Genco Shipping & Trading currently has a consensus price target of $23.00, suggesting a potential upside of 83.93%. Tsakos Energy Navigation has a consensus price target of $31.00, suggesting a potential upside of 104.05%. Given Tsakos Energy Navigation’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Tsakos Energy Navigation is more favorable than Genco Shipping & Trading.

Dividends

Genco Shipping & Trading pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.6%. Tsakos Energy Navigation pays an annual dividend of $1.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 11.8%. Genco Shipping & Trading pays out 68.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Tsakos Energy Navigation pays out 35.6% 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. Tsakos Energy Navigation is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Risk & Volatility

Genco Shipping & Trading has a beta of 0.96, suggesting that its share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Tsakos Energy Navigation has a beta of -0.2, suggesting that its share price is 120% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Genco Shipping & Trading and Tsakos Energy Navigation”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Genco Shipping & Trading	$423.02 million	1.26	-$12.87 million	$1.75	7.15
Tsakos Energy Navigation	$836.04 million	0.54	$300.18 million	$5.05	3.01

Tsakos Energy Navigation has higher revenue and earnings than Genco Shipping & Trading. Tsakos Energy Navigation is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Genco Shipping & Trading, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Genco Shipping & Trading and Tsakos Energy Navigation’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Genco Shipping & Trading	18.06%	7.82%	6.73%
Tsakos Energy Navigation	22.57%	19.07%	9.04%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

58.6% of Genco Shipping & Trading shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 19.2% of Tsakos Energy Navigation shares are held by institutional investors. 2.5% of Genco Shipping & Trading shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Tsakos Energy Navigation shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Tsakos Energy Navigation beats Genco Shipping & Trading on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Genco Shipping & Trading

Genco Shipping & Trading Ltd. is an international ship owning company, which engages in the transportation of iron ore, coal, grain, steel products, and other drybulk cargoes. The company was founded on September 27, 2004 and is headquartered in New York, NY.

About Tsakos Energy Navigation

Tsakos Energy Navigation Ltd. engages in the provision of seaborne crude oil and petroleum product transportation services. Its activities include the operation of crude tankers, product tankers, and liquefied natural gas carriers. The company was founded by Nikolas P. Tsakos and Michael Gordon Jolliffee in July 1993 and is headquartered in Athens, Greece.