Financial Analysis: Odyssey Marine Exploration (NASDAQ:OMEX) vs. Navios Maritime Partners (NYSE:NMM)

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

50.0% of Odyssey Marine Exploration shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 62.7% of Navios Maritime Partners shares are held by institutional investors. 8.0% of Odyssey Marine Exploration shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Odyssey Marine Exploration has a beta of -0.24, indicating that its stock price is 124% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Navios Maritime Partners has a beta of 1.01, indicating that its stock price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Odyssey Marine Exploration and Navios Maritime Partners, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Odyssey Marine Exploration	1	0	0	0	1.00
Navios Maritime Partners	0	1	1	0	2.50

Navios Maritime Partners has a consensus price target of $85.00, suggesting a potential upside of 20.88%. Given Navios Maritime Partners’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Navios Maritime Partners is more favorable than Odyssey Marine Exploration.

Profitability

This table compares Odyssey Marine Exploration and Navios Maritime Partners’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Odyssey Marine Exploration	-18,586.78%	N/A	-283.21%
Navios Maritime Partners	25.05%	10.48%	5.83%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Odyssey Marine Exploration 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
Odyssey Marine Exploration	$350,000.00	150.21	-$43.08 million	($1.17)	-0.77
Navios Maritime Partners	$1.34 billion	1.50	$285.33 million	$11.87	5.92

Navios Maritime Partners has higher revenue and earnings than Odyssey Marine Exploration. Odyssey Marine Exploration 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.

Summary

Navios Maritime Partners beats Odyssey Marine Exploration on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Odyssey Marine Exploration

Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, discovers, validates, and develops seafloor mineral resources worldwide. The company provides specialized mineral exploration, project development, and marine services to clients. Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Tampa, Florida.

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.