Critical Review: Safe Bulkers (NYSE:SB) versus Icon Energy (NASDAQ:ICON)

Safe Bulkers (NYSE:SB) and Icon Energy (NASDAQ:ICON) are both small-cap industrials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk and institutional ownership.

Volatility & Risk

Safe Bulkers has a beta of 1.09, suggesting that its share price is 9% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Icon Energy has a beta of 5.22, suggesting that its share price is 422% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Safe Bulkers and Icon Energy, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Safe Bulkers	0	1	1	0	2.50
Icon Energy	0	1	0	0	2.00

Safe Bulkers presently has a consensus target price of $6.00, indicating a potential downside of 19.53%. Given Safe Bulkers’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Safe Bulkers is more favorable than Icon Energy.

Profitability

This table compares Safe Bulkers and Icon Energy’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Safe Bulkers	28.29%	9.63%	5.77%
Icon Energy	N/A	N/A	N/A

Institutional & Insider Ownership

21.7% of Safe Bulkers shares are owned by institutional investors. 40.3% of Safe Bulkers shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Safe Bulkers and Icon Energy”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Safe Bulkers	$275.74 million	2.75	$38.56 million	$0.78	9.56
Icon Energy	$11.26 million	0.06	-$4.20 million	($24.60)	-0.04

Safe Bulkers has higher revenue and earnings than Icon Energy. Icon Energy is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Safe Bulkers, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Safe Bulkers beats Icon Energy on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Icon Energy

Iconix Brand Group, Inc. is a brand management company. As of December 31, 2016, the Company owned a portfolio of over 30 global consumer brands across women’s, men’s, and home categories. The Company operates through segments: men’s, women’s, home and international. The Company’s brand portfolio includes brands, such as Candie’s, Bongo, Joe Boxer, Rampage, Mudd, London Fog, Mossimo, Ocean Pacific/OP, Danskin/Danskin Now, Rocawear/Roc Nation, Cannon, Royal Velvet, Fieldcrest, Charisma, Starter, Waverly, Ecko Unltd/Mark Ecko Cut & Sew, Zoo York, Umbro, Lee Cooper and Artful Dodger, and interests in Material Girl, Ed Hardy, Truth or Dare, Modern Amusement, Buffalo, Nick Graham Hydraulic and PONY brands. It operates in various geographic regions, including the United States, Japan and Other (which principally represent Latin America and Europe).