Head to Head Review: Costamare (NYSE:CMRE) & COSCO SHIPPING (OTCMKTS:CICOY)

COSCO SHIPPING (OTCMKTS:CICOY) and Costamare (NYSE:CMRE) are both transportation companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, risk, valuation, earnings, institutional ownership and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for COSCO SHIPPING and Costamare, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
COSCO SHIPPING	2	2	0	0	1.50
Costamare	0	2	1	0	2.33

Costamare has a consensus price target of $12.00, suggesting a potential downside of 24.70%. Given Costamare’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Costamare is more favorable than COSCO SHIPPING.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares COSCO SHIPPING and Costamare”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
COSCO SHIPPING	$32.53 billion	0.84	$6.84 billion	N/A	N/A
Costamare	$2.08 billion	0.92	$319.92 million	$2.50	6.37

COSCO SHIPPING has higher revenue and earnings than Costamare.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

58.1% of Costamare shares are owned by institutional investors. 23.2% of Costamare shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares COSCO SHIPPING and Costamare’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
COSCO SHIPPING	N/A	N/A	N/A
Costamare	22.23%	15.15%	7.91%

Volatility & Risk

COSCO SHIPPING has a beta of 1.08, suggesting that its stock price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Costamare has a beta of 1.24, suggesting that its stock price is 24% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

COSCO SHIPPING pays an annual dividend of $0.57 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.7%. Costamare pays an annual dividend of $0.46 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. Costamare pays out 18.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Summary

Costamare beats COSCO SHIPPING on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About COSCO SHIPPING

COSCO SHIPPING Holdings Co., Ltd., an investment holding company, engages in the container shipping, managing and operating container terminals, and other terminal related businesses in the United States, Europe, the Asia Pacific, Mainland China, and internationally. It operates through Container Shipping Business and Terminal Business segments. The company offers freight forwarding and transportation, vessel chartering, container transportation, marine, vessel management and manning, cargo and liner agency, logistics, document, shipping agency and other sea transport, container stack, cargo storage, and cargo transportation services. It is also involved in the design and manufacture of computer software, as well as provision of technology services and solutions; asset management business; and operation of terminals. The company was formerly known as China COSCO Holdings Company Limited and changed its name to COSCO SHIPPING Holdings Co., Ltd. in November 2016. COSCO SHIPPING Holdings Co., Ltd. was incorporated in 2005 and is based in Shanghai, the People’s Republic of China.

About Costamare

Costamare Inc. owns and operates containerships and dry bulk vessels that are chartered to liner companies providing transportation of cargoes worldwide. As of March 19, 2024, it had a fleet of fleet of 68 containerships and 37 dry bulk vessels. The company was founded in 1974 and is based in Monaco.