Kirby (NYSE:KEX) & Golden Ocean Group (OTCMKTS:GDOCF) Financial Comparison

Kirby (NYSE:KEX) and Golden Ocean Group (OTCMKTS:GDOCF) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, valuation, dividends, profitability, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Kirby and Golden Ocean Group, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Kirby	0	1	6	0	2.86
Golden Ocean Group	0	0	0	0	0.00

Kirby currently has a consensus target price of $163.20, suggesting a potential upside of 15.54%. Given Kirby’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Kirby is more favorable than Golden Ocean Group.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

96.2% of Kirby shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.8% of Kirby shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Kirby and Golden Ocean Group”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Kirby	$3.36 billion	2.22	$354.57 million	$6.50	21.73
Golden Ocean Group	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Kirby has higher revenue and earnings than Golden Ocean Group.

Profitability

This table compares Kirby and Golden Ocean Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Kirby	10.18%	10.44%	5.82%
Golden Ocean Group	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary

Kirby beats Golden Ocean Group on 9 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Golden Ocean Group

Golden Ocean Group Limited, formerly Knightsbridge Shipping Limited, is an international dry bulk shipping company. The Company is engaged in the transportation of dry bulk cargoes. It owns and operates a fleet of dry bulk carrier vessels, focusing on the Capesize, Panamax and Supramax markets. Its vessels transport a range of major and minor bulk commodities, including ores, coal, grains and fertilizers. Its fleet includes owned vessels, bareboat vessels, chartered vessels, commercial management vessels and newbuildings. It owns over 40 dry bulk carriers and has contracts for approximately 20 newbuildings. It also has over 10 vessels chartered-in (of which over eight are chartered in from Ship Finance and approximately five are chartered in from third parties) and over one vessel is chartered-in through a joint venture. Over six of the vessels are chartered-out on fixed rate time charters and remaining are operated in the spot market or fixed on index-linked time charter contracts.