Analyzing Heidmar Maritime (NASDAQ:HMR) and Global Ship Lease (NYSE:GSL)

Global Ship Lease (NYSE:GSL) and Heidmar Maritime (NASDAQ:HMR) are both small-cap transportation companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, valuation, earnings, risk and institutional ownership.

Profitability

This table compares Global Ship Lease and Heidmar Maritime’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Global Ship Lease	53.62%	23.98%	14.94%
Heidmar Maritime	N/A	N/A	N/A

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Global Ship Lease and Heidmar Maritime”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Global Ship Lease	$711.05 million	1.80	$353.63 million	$11.14	3.21
Heidmar Maritime	$28.95 million	1.93	$1.91 million	$0.01	95.83

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

50.1% of Global Ship Lease shares are held by institutional investors. 7.4% of Global Ship Lease shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Global Ship Lease and Heidmar Maritime, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Global Ship Lease	0	2	2	0	2.50
Heidmar Maritime	1	0	1	0	2.00

Global Ship Lease currently has a consensus target price of $33.50, indicating a potential downside of 6.41%. Heidmar Maritime has a consensus target price of $5.00, indicating a potential upside of 421.76%. Given Heidmar Maritime’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Heidmar Maritime is more favorable than Global Ship Lease.

Summary

Global Ship Lease beats Heidmar Maritime on 10 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Global Ship Lease

Global Ship Lease, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in owning and chartering of containerships under fixed-rate charters to container shipping companies worldwide. As of March 11, 2024, it owned 68 mid-sized and smaller containerships, ranging from 2,207 to 11,040 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU), with an aggregate capacity of 375,406 TEU. The company was founded in 2007 and is based in Athens, Greece.

About Heidmar Maritime

Heidmar Maritime Holdings Corp. provides commercial and pool management services to the dry bulk, crude oil, and refined petroleum product tanker markets worldwide. It offers tanker pool and commercial management, dry bulk pool and commercial management, and fuel services. The company also operates a platform to invest in tanker or drybulk vessels offering a range of customized services for the investor, as well as engages in the sale and purchase of second-hand vessels and newbuilds in the tanker and drybulk sectors. In addition, it develops and operates eFleetWatch, a digital platform in the commercial management space, which provides pool partners with access to the data that they require for their own reporting and monitoring of their vessels. The company was founded in 1984 and is based in Piraeus, Greece.