Contrasting Okeanis Eco Tankers (NYSE:ECO) & Safe Bulkers (NYSE:SB)

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

Dividends

Okeanis Eco Tankers pays an annual dividend of $1.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.3%. Safe Bulkers pays an annual dividend of $0.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.4%. Okeanis Eco Tankers pays out 48.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Safe Bulkers 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

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

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Okeanis Eco Tankers	29.25%	27.19%	10.14%
Safe Bulkers	33.17%	11.58%	6.92%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for Okeanis Eco Tankers and Safe Bulkers, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

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

Okeanis Eco Tankers currently has a consensus target price of $40.00, suggesting a potential upside of 66.19%. Safe Bulkers has a consensus target price of $5.10, suggesting a potential upside of 38.40%. Given Okeanis Eco Tankers’ higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Okeanis Eco Tankers is more favorable than Safe Bulkers.

Valuation and Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Okeanis Eco Tankers	$399.71 million	1.94	$145.25 million	$3.63	6.63
Safe Bulkers	$284.40 million	1.38	$77.35 million	$0.90	4.09

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.

Summary

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

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.

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.