Head to Head Contrast: Pangaea Logistics Solutions (NASDAQ:PANL) & Nordic American Tankers (NYSE:NAT)

Pangaea Logistics Solutions (NASDAQ:PANL) and Nordic American Tankers (NYSE:NAT) are both small-cap transportation companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, profitability and valuation.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

60.2% of Pangaea Logistics Solutions shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 44.3% of Nordic American Tankers shares are held by institutional investors. 17.2% of Pangaea Logistics Solutions shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.9% of Nordic American Tankers shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Pangaea Logistics Solutions and Nordic American Tankers, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Pangaea Logistics Solutions	0	2	1	0	2.33
Nordic American Tankers	0	3	0	0	2.00

Pangaea Logistics Solutions presently has a consensus target price of $9.00, suggesting a potential upside of 26.05%. Nordic American Tankers has a consensus target price of $3.25, suggesting a potential downside of 20.63%. Given Pangaea Logistics Solutions’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Pangaea Logistics Solutions is more favorable than Nordic American Tankers.

Profitability

This table compares Pangaea Logistics Solutions and Nordic American Tankers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Pangaea Logistics Solutions	2.67%	3.26%	1.64%
Nordic American Tankers	1.12%	0.39%	0.21%

Risk and Volatility

Pangaea Logistics Solutions has a beta of 0.79, indicating that its share price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nordic American Tankers has a beta of -0.43, indicating that its share price is 143% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Pangaea Logistics Solutions and Nordic American Tankers”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Pangaea Logistics Solutions	$536.54 million	0.86	$28.90 million	$0.30	23.80
Nordic American Tankers	$225.10 million	3.85	$46.64 million	$0.02	204.75

Nordic American Tankers has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Pangaea Logistics Solutions. Pangaea Logistics Solutions is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Nordic American Tankers, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

Pangaea Logistics Solutions pays an annual dividend of $0.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Nordic American Tankers pays an annual dividend of $0.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 12.7%. Pangaea Logistics Solutions pays out 66.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Nordic American Tankers pays out 2,600.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Nordic American Tankers has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Nordic American Tankers is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

Pangaea Logistics Solutions beats Nordic American Tankers on 12 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Pangaea Logistics Solutions

Pangaea Logistics Solutions, Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides seaborne dry bulk logistics and transportation services to industrial customers worldwide. It offers various dry bulk cargoes, such as grains, coal, iron ore, pig iron, hot briquetted iron, bauxite, alumina, cement clinker, dolomite, and limestone. The company's ocean logistics services comprise cargo loading, cargo discharge, vessel chartering, voyage planning, and technical vessel management. It owns and operates a fleet of vessels. The company was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Newport, Rhode Island.

About Nordic American Tankers

Nordic American Tankers Limited, a tanker company, acquires and charters double-hull tankers in Bermuda and internationally. It operates a fleet of 20 Suezmax crude oil tankers. The company was incorporated in 1995 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda.