Comparing United Maritime (NASDAQ:USEA) & Viking (NYSE:VIK)

United Maritime (NASDAQ:USEA) and Viking (NYSE:VIK) are both transportation companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, earnings, valuation and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for United Maritime and Viking, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
United Maritime	0	0	0	1	4.00
Viking	0	3	9	0	2.75

United Maritime currently has a consensus price target of $6.00, suggesting a potential upside of 165.49%. Viking has a consensus price target of $37.50, suggesting a potential downside of 14.03%. Given United Maritime’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe United Maritime is more favorable than Viking.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

1.6% of United Maritime shares are held 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 United Maritime and Viking”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
United Maritime	$36.07 million	0.55	$220,000.00	$0.75	3.01
Viking	$4.71 billion	4.00	-$1.86 billion	N/A	N/A

United Maritime has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Viking.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
United Maritime	15.63%	11.26%	4.21%
Viking	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary

United Maritime beats Viking on 8 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About United Maritime

United Maritime Corporation, a shipping company, offers seaborne transportation services worldwide. It operates a fleet of eight dry bulk vessels comprising three Panamax, three Capesize, and two Kamsarmax vessels with an aggregate cargo-carrying capacity of approximately 922,054 dwt. The company was incorporated in 2022 and is based in Glyfada, Greece.

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.