Contrasting Martin Midstream Partners (NASDAQ:MMLP) & Flex LNG (NYSE:FLNG)

Martin Midstream Partners (NASDAQ:MMLP) and Flex LNG (NYSE:FLNG) are both small-cap transportation companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Martin Midstream Partners and Flex LNG, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Martin Midstream Partners	1	1	0	0	1.50
Flex LNG	0	2	0	0	2.00

Martin Midstream Partners presently has a consensus target price of $3.00, suggesting a potential upside of 13.42%. Flex LNG has a consensus target price of $23.00, suggesting a potential downside of 25.64%. Given Martin Midstream Partners’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Martin Midstream Partners is more favorable than Flex LNG.

Risk and Volatility

Martin Midstream Partners has a beta of 0.57, indicating that its share price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Flex LNG has a beta of 0.27, indicating that its share price is 73% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Martin Midstream Partners and Flex LNG’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Martin Midstream Partners	-2.88%	N/A	-3.97%
Flex LNG	21.52%	13.46%	3.83%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Martin Midstream Partners and Flex LNG”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Martin Midstream Partners	$716.11 million	0.14	-$14.74 million	($0.37)	-7.15
Flex LNG	$347.64 million	4.81	$74.82 million	$1.39	22.25

Flex LNG has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Martin Midstream Partners. Martin Midstream Partners is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Flex LNG, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

34.9% of Martin Midstream Partners shares are held by institutional investors. 17.0% of Martin Midstream Partners shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Flex LNG shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Martin Midstream Partners pays an annual dividend of $0.02 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Flex LNG pays an annual dividend of $3.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.7%. Martin Midstream Partners pays out -5.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Flex LNG pays out 215.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Summary

Flex LNG beats Martin Midstream Partners on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Martin Midstream Partners

Martin Midstream Partners L.P., together with its subsidiaries, provides terminalling, processing, storage, and packaging services for petroleum products and by-products primarily in the United States. The company operates in four segments: Terminalling and Storage, Transportation, Sulfur Services, and Specialty Products. The company's Terminalling and Storage segment owns or operates various marine shore-based terminal facilities and specialty terminal facilities that provide storage, refining, blending, packaging, and handling services for producers and suppliers of petroleum products and by-products. This segment also offers land rental services to oil and gas companies, as well as storage and handling services for lubricants and fuels. Its Transportation segment operates various trucks and tank trailers; and inland marine tank barges, inland push boats, and articulated offshore tug and barge unit to transport petroleum products and by-products, petrochemicals, and chemicals. The company's Sulfur Services segment processes molten sulfur into prilled or pelletized sulfur, which is used in the production of fertilizers and industrial chemicals. Its Specialty Products segment stores, distributes, and transports natural gas liquids for wholesale deliveries to refineries, industrial natural gas liquid users, and propane retailers. Martin Midstream GP LLC serves as a general partner of the company. Martin Midstream Partners L.P. was incorporated in 2002 and is based in Kilgore, Texas.

About Flex LNG

FLEX LNG Ltd. engages in the seaborne transportation of liquefied natural gas (LPG) through the ownership and operation of LNG carriers. The company was founded by Philip Eystein Fjeld, Trym Tveitnes and Jostein Ueland in September 2006 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda.