Critical Survey: Cool (NYSE:CLCO) vs. Viking (NYSE:VIK)

Cool (NYSE:CLCO) and Viking (NYSE:VIK) are both transportation companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Cool and Viking, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cool	0	1	0	0	2.00
Viking	0	4	11	0	2.73

Viking has a consensus price target of $46.33, indicating a potential upside of 16.34%. Given Viking’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Viking is more favorable than Cool.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

20.7% of Cool shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.8% of Viking shares are owned by institutional investors. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Cool and Viking”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cool	$333.65 million	0.93	$174.73 million	$0.68	8.53
Viking	$5.33 billion	3.22	-$1.86 billion	$0.26	153.17

Cool has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Viking. Cool is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Viking, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Cool and Viking’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cool	N/A	N/A	N/A
Viking	-10.97%	N/A	-1.53%

Summary

Viking beats Cool on 7 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Cool

Cool Company Ltd. engages in the acquisition, ownership, operation, and chartering of liquefied natural gas carriers (LNGCs). As of December 31, 2023, it owned a fleet of eleven LNGCs, including seven modern tri-fuel diesel electric vessels; two modern 2-stroke and two TFDE vessels; and managed 17 LNGCs and floating storage and regasification units for third parties. The company was founded in 1970 and is based in London, the United Kingdom.

About Viking

Viking Holdings Ltd engages in the passenger shipping and other forms of passenger transport in North America, the United Kingdom, and internationally. It operates through River and Ocean segments. The company also operates as a tour entrepreneur for passengers and related activities in tourism. As of December 31, 2023, it operated a fleet of 92 ships, including 81 river vessels comprising 58 Longships, 10 smaller classes based on the Longship design, 11 other river vessels, and 1 river vessel charter and the Viking Mississippi; 9 ocean ships; and 2 expedition ships. The company was founded in 1997 and is based in Pembroke, Bermuda.