Financial Survey: Nordic American Tankers (NYSE:NAT) and Cross Timbers Royalty Trust (NYSE:CRT)

Nordic American Tankers (NYSE:NAT) and Cross Timbers Royalty Trust (NYSE:CRT) are both small-cap energy companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, dividends, earnings and valuation.

Risk and Volatility

Nordic American Tankers has a beta of -0.56, indicating that its share price is 156% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cross Timbers Royalty Trust has a beta of 0.01, indicating that its share price is 99% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

44.3% of Nordic American Tankers shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 9.7% of Cross Timbers Royalty Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.9% of Nordic American Tankers shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 9.4% of Cross Timbers Royalty Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Nordic American Tankers and Cross Timbers Royalty Trust”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Nordic American Tankers	$370.40 million	4.66	$124.93 million	$0.59	13.81
Cross Timbers Royalty Trust	$4.25 million	19.58	$3.18 million	$0.53	26.19

Nordic American Tankers has higher revenue and earnings than Cross Timbers Royalty Trust. Nordic American Tankers is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Cross Timbers Royalty Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Nordic American Tankers and Cross Timbers Royalty Trust, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Nordic American Tankers	1	2	1	0	2.00
Cross Timbers Royalty Trust	0	1	0	0	2.00

Nordic American Tankers presently has a consensus price target of $6.83, suggesting a potential downside of 16.15%. Given Nordic American Tankers’ higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Nordic American Tankers is more favorable than Cross Timbers Royalty Trust.

Profitability

This table compares Nordic American Tankers and Cross Timbers Royalty Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Nordic American Tankers	N/A	N/A	N/A
Cross Timbers Royalty Trust	N/A	N/A	N/A

Dividends

Nordic American Tankers pays an annual dividend of $1.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 13.3%. Cross Timbers Royalty Trust pays an annual dividend of $3.33 per share and has a dividend yield of 24.0%. Nordic American Tankers pays out 183.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Cross Timbers Royalty Trust pays out 628.3% 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.

Summary

Nordic American Tankers beats Cross Timbers Royalty Trust on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Cross Timbers Royalty Trust

Cross Timbers Royalty Trust operates as an express trust in the United States. It holds 90% net profits interests in certain producing and nonproducing royalty and overriding royalty interest properties in Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico; and 75% net profits working interest in four properties in Texas and three properties in Oklahoma. The company was founded in 1991 and is based in Dallas, Texas.