Global Ship Lease (NYSE:GSL) & Tsakos Energy Navigation (NYSE:TEN) Head-To-Head Survey

Tsakos Energy Navigation (NYSE:TEN) and Global Ship Lease (NYSE:GSL) are both small-cap transportation companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, valuation, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Dividends

Tsakos Energy Navigation pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. Global Ship Lease pays an annual dividend of $2.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.6%. Tsakos Energy Navigation pays out 22.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Global Ship Lease pays out 21.9% 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. Global Ship Lease is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Profitability

This table compares Tsakos Energy Navigation and Global Ship Lease’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Tsakos Energy Navigation	20.15%	26.29%	12.40%
Global Ship Lease	54.33%	22.35%	13.99%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

19.2% of Tsakos Energy Navigation shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 50.1% of Global Ship Lease shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of Tsakos Energy Navigation shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

Tsakos Energy Navigation has a beta of -0.27, suggesting that its share price is 127% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Global Ship Lease has a beta of 0.88, suggesting that its share price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Tsakos Energy Navigation and Global Ship Lease, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Tsakos Energy Navigation	0	3	1	0	2.25
Global Ship Lease	1	1	3	0	2.40

Tsakos Energy Navigation presently has a consensus target price of $29.50, indicating a potential downside of 21.30%. Global Ship Lease has a consensus target price of $38.33, indicating a potential upside of 0.92%. Given Global Ship Lease’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Global Ship Lease is more favorable than Tsakos Energy Navigation.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Tsakos Energy Navigation and Global Ship Lease”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Tsakos Energy Navigation	$798.69 million	1.41	$160.90 million	$4.46	8.40
Global Ship Lease	$766.45 million	1.78	$416.45 million	$11.39	3.33

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

Summary

Global Ship Lease beats Tsakos Energy Navigation on 13 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Tsakos Energy Navigation

Tsakos Energy Navigation Ltd. engages in the provision of seaborne crude oil and petroleum product transportation services. Its activities include the operation of crude tankers, product tankers, and liquefied natural gas carriers. The company was founded by Nikolas P. Tsakos and Michael Gordon Jolliffee in July 1993 and is headquartered in Athens, Greece.

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.