Reviewing Ardmore Shipping (NYSE:ASC) and Okeanis Eco Tankers (NYSE:ECO)

Ardmore Shipping (NYSE:ASC) and Okeanis Eco Tankers (NYSE:ECO) are both small-cap transportation companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, risk, dividends and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Ardmore Shipping and Okeanis Eco Tankers, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ardmore Shipping	0	2	2	0	2.50
Okeanis Eco Tankers	0	0	1	0	3.00

Ardmore Shipping presently has a consensus target price of $18.00, indicating a potential upside of 71.49%. Okeanis Eco Tankers has a consensus target price of $40.00, indicating a potential upside of 63.67%. Given Ardmore Shipping’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Ardmore Shipping is more favorable than Okeanis Eco Tankers.

Dividends

Ardmore Shipping pays an annual dividend of $0.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.9%. Okeanis Eco Tankers pays an annual dividend of $1.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.2%. Ardmore Shipping pays out 20.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Okeanis Eco Tankers pays out 48.5% 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 Ardmore Shipping 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
Ardmore Shipping	$395.98 million	1.11	$116.81 million	$3.57	2.94
Okeanis Eco Tankers	$413.10 million	1.90	$145.25 million	$3.63	6.73

Okeanis Eco Tankers has higher revenue and earnings than Ardmore Shipping. Ardmore Shipping 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.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

62.2% of Ardmore Shipping shares are held by institutional investors. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ardmore Shipping	36.22%	23.63%	19.42%
Okeanis Eco Tankers	29.25%	27.19%	10.14%

Summary

Okeanis Eco Tankers beats Ardmore Shipping on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ardmore Shipping

Ardmore Shipping Corporation engages in the seaborne transportation of petroleum products and chemicals worldwide. The company's fleet consists of 22 owned vessels including 21 Eco-design and 1 Eco-mod vessel, and four chartered-in vessels. It serves oil majors, oil companies, oil and chemical traders, chemical companies, and pooling service providers. Ardmore Shipping Corporation was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Pembroke, Bermuda.

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.