Financial Survey: Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (OTCMKTS:NPNYY) vs. Global Ship Lease (NYSE:GSL)

Global Ship Lease (NYSE:GSL) and Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (OTCMKTS:NPNYY) are both transportation companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Global Ship Lease and Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Global Ship Lease	0	1	2	1	3.00
Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha	0	1	0	0	2.00

Global Ship Lease currently has a consensus target price of $33.50, indicating a potential upside of 0.12%. Given Global Ship Lease’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Global Ship Lease is more favorable than Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha.

Institutional & Insider 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 company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Global Ship Lease and Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha’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%
Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha	12.71%	10.11%	6.82%

Volatility & Risk

Global Ship Lease has a beta of 1.2, meaning that its share price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha has a beta of 1.13, meaning that its share price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Global Ship Lease and Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Global Ship Lease	$747.04 million	1.60	$353.63 million	$11.14	3.00
Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha	$17.00 billion	0.81	$1.51 billion	$0.96	6.57

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

Dividends

Global Ship Lease pays an annual dividend of $2.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.5%. Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha pays an annual dividend of $0.43 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.8%. Global Ship Lease pays out 22.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha pays out 44.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Global Ship Lease has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Global Ship Lease is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

Global Ship Lease beats Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha on 15 of the 18 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 Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha

Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha provides various logistics services worldwide. It operates through Liner & Logistics Business, Bulk Shipping Business, and Other Business segments. The company offers liner trading services, such as container shipping, and terminal and stevedoring services for containerships, car carriers, and cruise ships; and air cargo transportation services. It also provides bulk shipping services comprising transport services for finished automobiles, heavy construction machines, and used cars; transportation services for bulk freight, including iron ore, coal, and wood chips; and transportation services for crude oil, petroleum products, chemicals, liquefied petroleum gas, liquefied natural gas, and coal. In addition, the company is involved in the upstream areas of the supply chain for oil and natural gas. Further, it operates Asuka II, a luxury cruise ship; and manages commercial and residential buildings. Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha was incorporated in 1885 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.