Reviewing Genco Shipping & Trading (NYSE:GNK) and Tsakos Energy Navigation (NYSE:TEN)

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

Earnings & Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Tsakos Energy Navigation	$836.04 million	0.57	$300.18 million	$5.05	3.21
Genco Shipping & Trading	$423.02 million	1.28	-$12.87 million	$1.75	7.19

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.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

19.2% of Tsakos Energy Navigation shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 58.6% of Genco Shipping & Trading shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.0% of Tsakos Energy Navigation shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.5% of Genco Shipping & Trading shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

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

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

Tsakos Energy Navigation presently has a consensus target price of $31.00, suggesting a potential upside of 90.97%. Genco Shipping & Trading has a consensus target price of $23.00, suggesting a potential upside of 82.90%. Given Tsakos Energy Navigation’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Tsakos Energy Navigation is more favorable than Genco Shipping & Trading.

Profitability

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

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

Dividends

Tsakos Energy Navigation pays an annual dividend of $1.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 11.1%. Genco Shipping & Trading pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.5%. Tsakos Energy Navigation pays out 35.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Genco Shipping & Trading pays out 68.6% 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 and Volatility

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

Summary

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

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.

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.