Contrasting Global Ship Lease (NYSE:GSL) & United Maritime (NASDAQ:USEA)

Global Ship Lease (NYSE:GSL) and United Maritime (NASDAQ:USEA) are both small-cap transportation companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings and valuation.

Risk and Volatility

Global Ship Lease has a beta of 1.2, meaning that its share price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, United Maritime has a beta of 0.91, meaning that its share price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

50.1% of Global Ship Lease shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 1.6% of United Maritime shares are held by institutional investors. 7.4% of Global Ship Lease shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Global Ship Lease and United Maritime”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Global Ship Lease	$730.28 million	1.48	$353.63 million	$10.77	2.84
United Maritime	$45.44 million	0.34	-$3.38 million	($0.72)	-2.35

Global Ship Lease has higher revenue and earnings than United Maritime. United Maritime is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Global Ship Lease, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Global Ship Lease and United Maritime, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Global Ship Lease	0	1	1	0	2.50
United Maritime	0	0	0	0	0.00

Global Ship Lease currently has a consensus target price of $30.50, suggesting a potential downside of 0.13%. Given Global Ship Lease’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Global Ship Lease is more favorable than United Maritime.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Global Ship Lease	53.09%	24.81%	15.30%
United Maritime	-14.64%	-9.88%	-3.45%

Dividends

Global Ship Lease pays an annual dividend of $2.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.9%. United Maritime pays an annual dividend of $0.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.1%. Global Ship Lease pays out 19.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. United Maritime pays out -16.7% 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. Global Ship Lease has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years. United Maritime is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

Global Ship Lease beats United Maritime on 15 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Global Ship Lease

Global Ship Lease, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in owning and chartering of containerships under fixed-rate charters to container shipping companies worldwide. As of March 11, 2024, it owned 68 mid-sized and smaller containerships, ranging from 2,207 to 11,040 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU), with an aggregate capacity of 375,406 TEU. The company was founded in 2007 and is based in Athens, Greece.

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.