Analyzing Kirby (NYSE:KEX) & Global Ship Lease (NYSE:GSL)

Global Ship Lease (NYSE:GSL) and Kirby (NYSE:KEX) are both transportation companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations, valuation, dividends and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Global Ship Lease and Kirby, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Global Ship Lease	0	1	2	1	3.00
Kirby	0	3	4	0	2.57

Global Ship Lease presently has a consensus target price of $30.50, suggesting a potential upside of 4.65%. Kirby has a consensus target price of $113.40, suggesting a potential upside of 27.51%. Given Kirby’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Kirby is more favorable than Global Ship Lease.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Global Ship Lease and Kirby”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Global Ship Lease	$711.05 million	1.47	$353.63 million	$10.77	2.71
Kirby	$3.27 billion	1.52	$286.71 million	$5.29	16.81

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

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Global Ship Lease	53.09%	24.81%	15.30%
Kirby	9.25%	10.02%	5.63%

Risk and Volatility

Global Ship Lease has a beta of 1.2, meaning that its share price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Kirby has a beta of 1, meaning that its share price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

50.1% of Global Ship Lease shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.2% of Kirby shares are held by institutional investors. 0.9% of Kirby shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Global Ship Lease beats Kirby on 8 of the 15 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 Kirby

Kirby Corporation operates domestic tank barges in the United States. Its Marine Transportation segment provides marine transportation service and towing vessel transporting bulk liquid product, as well as operates tank barge throughout the Mississippi River System, on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, coastwise along three United States coasts, and in Alaska and Hawaii. It also transports petrochemicals, black oils, refined petroleum products, and agricultural chemicals by tank barges; and operates offshore dry-bulk barges and tugboat units that are engaged in the offshore transportation of dry-bulk cargos in the United States coastal trade. It owns and operates 1,076 inland tank barges, approximately 281 inland towboats, 28 coastal tank barges, 25 coastal tugboats, 4 offshore dry-bulk cargo barges, 4 offshore tugboats, and a docking tugboat. Its Distribution and Services segment sells after-market service and genuine replacement parts for engines, transmissions, reduction gears, electric motors, drives, and controls, electrical distribution and control systems, energy storage battery systems, and related oilfield service equipment; rebuilds component parts or diesel engines, transmissions and reduction gears, and related equipment used in oilfield services, marine, power generation, on-highway, and other industrial applications; rents generators, industrial compressors, high capacity lift trucks, and refrigeration trailers; and manufactures and remanufactures oilfield service equipment, including pressure pumping units, as well as manufacturers electric power generation equipment, specialized electrical distribution and control equipment, and high capacity energy storage/battery systems. It serves to various companies, the United States government, and pleasure crafts. The company was formerly known as Kirby Exploration Company, Inc. and changed its name to Kirby Corporation in 1990. Kirby Corporation was founded in 1921 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.