Head-To-Head Comparison: Despegar.com (NYSE:DESP) vs. BW LPG (NYSE:BWLP)

Despegar.com (NYSE:DESP) and BW LPG (NYSE:BWLP) are both small-cap transportation companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, dividends and valuation.

Profitability

This table compares Despegar.com and BW LPG’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Despegar.com	3.30%	-62.18%	7.64%
BW LPG	N/A	N/A	N/A

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Despegar.com and BW LPG, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Despegar.com	0	1	3	0	2.75
BW LPG	0	0	0	0	N/A

Despegar.com presently has a consensus target price of $15.75, suggesting a potential upside of 6.31%. Given Despegar.com’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Despegar.com is more favorable than BW LPG.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

67.9% of Despegar.com shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.2% of Despegar.com shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Despegar.com and BW LPG”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Despegar.com	$720.99 million	1.36	$24.49 million	N/A	N/A
BW LPG	$3.51 billion	0.50	N/A	N/A	N/A

Despegar.com has higher earnings, but lower revenue than BW LPG.

Summary

Despegar.com beats BW LPG on 7 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Despegar.com

Despegar.com, Corp., an online travel company, provides a range of travel and travel-related products to leisure and corporate travelers through its websites and mobile applications in Latin America and the United States. The company operates in two segments, Travel Business and Financial Services Business. It sells airline tickets, travel packages, hotel rooms, car rentals, bus and cruise tickets, travel insurance, destination services, and other travel-related products, which enable consumers to find, compare, plan, and purchase travel products through its marketplace. The company also provides a technology platform for its travel suppliers to manage the distribution of their travel products and access to traveler customers. In addition, it offers loan origination services to its travel business' customers and to customers of other merchants in various industries; processing, fraud identification, credit scoring and IT services to travel business, and to third-party merchants; and Koin, an online payment and consumer lending services platform. The company offers travel products and services under the Despegar, Decolar, Best Day, BD Experience, and HotelDo brands. Despegar.com, Corp. was founded in 1999 and is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

About BW LPG

BW LPG Limited, an investment holding company, engages in ship owning and chartering activities worldwide. The company operates through Shipping and Product Services segments. The company involved in the transportation of liquefied petroleum gas to oil companies, and trading and utility companies. It also offers integrated liquified petroleum gas (LPG) delivery services and support; wholesale and trade of LPG; and management services. It owns and operates LPG vessels and a fleet of very large gas carriers. The company was formerly known as BW Gas LPG Holding Limited and changed its name to BW LPG Limited in September 2013. BW LPG Limited was founded in 1935 and is headquartered in Singapore.