Safe Bulkers (NYSE:SB) and Odyssey Marine Exploration (NASDAQ:OMEX) Head to Head Review

Safe Bulkers (NYSE:SB) and Odyssey Marine Exploration (NASDAQ:OMEX) are both small-cap transportation companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings for Safe Bulkers and Odyssey Marine Exploration, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Safe Bulkers	0	2	1	0	2.33
Odyssey Marine Exploration	1	0	0	0	1.00

Safe Bulkers currently has a consensus price target of $6.00, indicating a potential downside of 12.09%. Given Safe Bulkers’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Safe Bulkers is more favorable than Odyssey Marine Exploration.

Risk & Volatility

Safe Bulkers has a beta of 0.85, meaning that its share price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Odyssey Marine Exploration has a beta of -0.24, meaning that its share price is 124% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Safe Bulkers and Odyssey Marine Exploration”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Safe Bulkers	$275.74 million	2.53	$38.56 million	$0.30	22.75
Odyssey Marine Exploration	$350,000.00	152.03	-$43.08 million	($1.17)	-0.78

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

Profitability

This table compares Safe Bulkers and Odyssey Marine Exploration’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Safe Bulkers	13.99%	4.91%	2.91%
Odyssey Marine Exploration	-18,586.78%	N/A	-283.21%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

21.7% of Safe Bulkers shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 50.0% of Odyssey Marine Exploration shares are held by institutional investors. 40.3% of Safe Bulkers shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.1% of Odyssey Marine Exploration shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Safe Bulkers beats Odyssey Marine Exploration on 12 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 Odyssey Marine Exploration

Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, discovers, validates, and develops seafloor mineral resources worldwide. The company provides specialized mineral exploration, project development, and marine services to clients. Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Tampa, Florida.