Reviewing Seanergy Maritime (NASDAQ:SHIP) & Navios Maritime Partners (NYSE:NMM)

Seanergy Maritime (NASDAQ:SHIP) and Navios Maritime Partners (NYSE:NMM) are both industrials companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, valuation, profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk and dividends.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

29.4% of Seanergy Maritime shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 62.7% of Navios Maritime Partners shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.7% of Seanergy Maritime shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

Seanergy Maritime has a beta of 1.15, meaning that its stock price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Navios Maritime Partners has a beta of 1.14, meaning that its stock price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Seanergy Maritime pays an annual dividend of $1.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.9%. Navios Maritime Partners pays an annual dividend of $0.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.3%. Seanergy Maritime pays out 49.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Navios Maritime Partners pays out 1.2% 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.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Seanergy Maritime and Navios Maritime Partners”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Seanergy Maritime	$158.10 million	1.87	$21.24 million	$2.86	4.94
Navios Maritime Partners	$1.34 billion	1.82	$285.33 million	$19.83	4.31

Navios Maritime Partners has higher revenue and earnings than Seanergy Maritime. Navios Maritime Partners is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Seanergy Maritime, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Seanergy Maritime and Navios Maritime Partners’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Seanergy Maritime	30.68%	21.87%	10.20%
Navios Maritime Partners	36.89%	14.36%	8.18%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Seanergy Maritime and Navios Maritime Partners, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Seanergy Maritime	0	1	3	0	2.75
Navios Maritime Partners	0	0	2	0	3.00

Seanergy Maritime presently has a consensus price target of $25.00, indicating a potential upside of 77.05%. Navios Maritime Partners has a consensus price target of $100.00, indicating a potential upside of 16.94%. Given Seanergy Maritime’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Seanergy Maritime is more favorable than Navios Maritime Partners.

Summary

Seanergy Maritime beats Navios Maritime Partners on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Seanergy Maritime

Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp., a shipping company, provides seaborne transportation of dry bulk commodities worldwide. It operates a fleet of 16 Capesize dry bulk vessels and one Newcastlemax dry bulk vessel with a cargo-carrying capacity of approximately 3,054,820 dwt. The company was formerly known as Seanergy Merger Corp. and changed its name to Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp. in July 2008. Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp. was incorporated in 2008 and is based in Glyfada, Greece.

About Navios Maritime Partners

Navios Maritime Partners L.P. owns and operates dry cargo vessels in Asia, Europe, North America, and Australia. The company offers seaborne transportation services for a range of liquid and dry cargo commodities, including crude oil, refined petroleum, chemicals, iron ore, coal, grain, fertilizer, and containers, as well as charters its vessels under short, medium, and longer-term charters. Navios Maritime Partners L.P. was founded in 2007 and is based in Monaco.