Critical Review: Safe Bulkers (NYSE:SB) versus Okeanis Eco Tankers (NYSE:ECO)

Safe Bulkers (NYSE:SB) and Okeanis Eco Tankers (NYSE:ECO) are both small-cap transportation companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, risk, dividends and valuation.

Dividends

Safe Bulkers pays an annual dividend of $0.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.3%. Okeanis Eco Tankers pays an annual dividend of $1.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.0%. Safe Bulkers pays out 24.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Okeanis Eco Tankers pays out 52.1% 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.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Safe Bulkers and Okeanis Eco Tankers”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Safe Bulkers	$307.63 million	1.28	$77.35 million	$0.83	4.51
Okeanis Eco Tankers	$393.23 million	1.79	$145.25 million	$3.38	6.47

Okeanis Eco Tankers has higher revenue and earnings than Safe Bulkers. Safe Bulkers is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Okeanis Eco Tankers, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

21.7% of Safe Bulkers shares are owned by institutional investors. 40.3% of Safe Bulkers shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Safe Bulkers and Okeanis Eco Tankers, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Safe Bulkers	0	0	2	0	3.00
Okeanis Eco Tankers	0	0	1	0	3.00

Safe Bulkers currently has a consensus target price of $4.80, indicating a potential upside of 28.17%. Okeanis Eco Tankers has a consensus target price of $40.00, indicating a potential upside of 82.82%. Given Okeanis Eco Tankers’ higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Okeanis Eco Tankers is more favorable than Safe Bulkers.

Profitability

This table compares Safe Bulkers and Okeanis Eco Tankers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Safe Bulkers	31.65%	10.04%	6.01%
Okeanis Eco Tankers	27.68%	25.40%	9.58%

Summary

Okeanis Eco Tankers beats Safe Bulkers on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Safe Bulkers

Safe Bulkers, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides marine drybulk transportation services. It owns and operates drybulk vessels for transporting bulk cargoes primarily coal, grain, and iron ore. The company has a fleet of 47 drybulk vessels having an aggregate carrying capacity of 4,719,600 deadweight tons. Its fleet consists of 10 Panamax class vessels, 11 Kamsarmax class vessels, 18 post-Panamax class vessels, and 8 Capesize class vessels. Safe Bulkers, Inc. was incorporated in 2007 and is based in Monaco.

About Okeanis Eco Tankers

Okeanis Eco Tankers Corp., a shipping company, owns and operates tanker vessels worldwide. It operates a fleet of 14 tanker vessels comprising six modern Suezmax tankers and eight modern VLCC tankers focusing on the transportation of crude oil. The company was incorporated in 2018 and is based in Neo Faliro, Greece.