Critical Survey: Target Hospitality (NASDAQ:TH) versus Viking (NYSE:VIK)

Target Hospitality (NASDAQ:TH) and Viking (NYSE:VIK) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, risk, institutional ownership and earnings.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

32.4% of Target Hospitality shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.8% of Viking shares are held by institutional investors. 68.0% of Target Hospitality shares are held 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.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Target Hospitality and Viking, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Target Hospitality	1	0	2	1	2.75
Viking	1	4	10	0	2.60

Target Hospitality presently has a consensus price target of $13.00, indicating a potential downside of 9.34%. Viking has a consensus price target of $75.21, indicating a potential downside of 3.46%. Given Viking’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Viking is more favorable than Target Hospitality.

Risk & Volatility

Target Hospitality has a beta of 1.12, suggesting that its stock price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Viking has a beta of 1.9, suggesting that its stock price is 90% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Target Hospitality and Viking’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Target Hospitality	-11.58%	-8.65%	-6.41%
Viking	17.65%	240.75%	10.23%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Target Hospitality and Viking”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Target Hospitality	$320.64 million	4.48	-$37.12 million	($0.38)	-37.74
Viking	$6.50 billion	5.34	$1.15 billion	$2.57	30.31

Viking has higher revenue and earnings than Target Hospitality. Target Hospitality is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Viking, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Viking beats Target Hospitality on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Target Hospitality

Target Hospitality Corp. operates as a specialty rental and hospitality services company in North America. The company operates through two segments, Hospitality & Facilities Services – South and Government. It owns a network of specialty rental accommodation units. In addition, the company provides catering and food, maintenance, housekeeping, grounds-keeping, security, health and recreation facilities, workforce community management, concierge, and laundry services. It serves the U.S. government contractors and investment grade natural resource development companies. Target Hospitality Corp. was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas.

About Viking

Viking Holdings Ltd engages in the passenger shipping and other forms of passenger transport in North America, the United Kingdom, and internationally. It operates through River and Ocean segments. The company also operates as a tour entrepreneur for passengers and related activities in tourism. As of December 31, 2023, it operated a fleet of 92 ships, including 81 river vessels comprising 58 Longships, 10 smaller classes based on the Longship design, 11 other river vessels, and 1 river vessel charter and the Viking Mississippi; 9 ocean ships; and 2 expedition ships. The company was founded in 1997 and is based in Pembroke, Bermuda.