BW LPG (NYSE:BWLP) versus Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) Financial Analysis

BW LPG (NYSE:BWLP) and Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) are both transportation companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, earnings, valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for BW LPG and Booking, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
BW LPG	0	0	1	0	3.00
Booking	0	9	20	2	2.77

Booking has a consensus target price of $5,370.43, indicating a potential upside of 9.21%. Given Booking’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Booking is more favorable than BW LPG.

Dividends

BW LPG pays an annual dividend of $1.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 15.2%. Booking pays an annual dividend of $38.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. BW LPG pays out 63.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Booking pays out 22.2% 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.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

92.4% of Booking shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of Booking shares are held 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.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares BW LPG and Booking”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
BW LPG	$3.60 billion	0.41	$350.22 million	$2.66	4.17
Booking	$23.74 billion	6.80	$5.88 billion	$173.04	28.42

Booking has higher revenue and earnings than BW LPG. BW LPG is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Booking, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
BW LPG	N/A	N/A	N/A
Booking	24.78%	-159.34%	22.77%

Summary

Booking beats BW LPG on 13 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Booking

Booking Holdings Inc, formerly The Priceline Group Inc., is a provider of travel and restaurant online reservation and related services. The Company, through its online travel companies (OTCs), connects consumers wishing to make travel reservations with providers of travel services across the world. It offers consumers an array of accommodation reservations (including hotels, bed and breakfasts, hostels, apartments, vacation rentals and other properties) through its Booking.com, priceline.com and agoda.com brands. Its other brands include KAYAK, Rentalcars.com and OpenTable, Inc. (OpenTable). As of December 31, 2016, Booking.com offered accommodation reservation services for over 1,115,000 properties in over 220 countries and territories on its various Websites and in over 40 languages, which included over 568,000 vacation rental properties (updated property counts were available on the Booking.com Website).