Critical Analysis: Icon Energy (NASDAQ:ICON) vs. Navios Maritime Partners (NYSE:NMM)

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Icon Energy and Navios Maritime Partners, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Icon Energy	0	1	0	0	2.00
Navios Maritime Partners	0	0	2	0	3.00

Navios Maritime Partners has a consensus target price of $100.00, suggesting a potential upside of 16.94%. Given Navios Maritime Partners’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Navios Maritime Partners is more favorable than Icon Energy.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Icon Energy	N/A	N/A	N/A
Navios Maritime Partners	30.27%	12.24%	6.90%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Icon Energy and Navios Maritime Partners”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Icon Energy	$11.26 million	0.06	-$4.20 million	($24.60)	-0.04
Navios Maritime Partners	$1.34 billion	1.82	$285.33 million	$19.83	4.31

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

62.7% of Navios Maritime Partners shares are held by institutional investors. 4.7% of Icon Energy shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Icon Energy has a beta of 5.22, indicating that its stock price is 422% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Navios Maritime Partners has a beta of 1.14, indicating that its stock price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Navios Maritime Partners beats Icon Energy on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Icon Energy

Iconix Brand Group, Inc. is a brand management company. As of December 31, 2016, the Company owned a portfolio of over 30 global consumer brands across women’s, men’s, and home categories. The Company operates through segments: men’s, women’s, home and international. The Company’s brand portfolio includes brands, such as Candie’s, Bongo, Joe Boxer, Rampage, Mudd, London Fog, Mossimo, Ocean Pacific/OP, Danskin/Danskin Now, Rocawear/Roc Nation, Cannon, Royal Velvet, Fieldcrest, Charisma, Starter, Waverly, Ecko Unltd/Mark Ecko Cut & Sew, Zoo York, Umbro, Lee Cooper and Artful Dodger, and interests in Material Girl, Ed Hardy, Truth or Dare, Modern Amusement, Buffalo, Nick Graham Hydraulic and PONY brands. It operates in various geographic regions, including the United States, Japan and Other (which principally represent Latin America and Europe).

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.