Viking (VIK) versus Its Rivals Critical Review

Viking (NYSE:VIK) is one of 382 public companies in the “Hotels, Restaurants & Leisure” industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare Viking to similar businesses based on the strength of its earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation, risk, institutional ownership and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Viking and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Viking	1	3	15	1	2.80
Viking Competitors	3801	17252	25549	902	2.50

Viking currently has a consensus target price of $108.00, indicating a potential upside of 25.33%. As a group, “Hotels, Restaurants & Leisure” companies have a potential upside of 58.67%. Given Viking’s peers higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Viking has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

98.8% of Viking shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 48.7% of shares of all “Hotels, Restaurants & Leisure” companies are owned by institutional investors. 22.3% of shares of all “Hotels, Restaurants & Leisure” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Viking has a beta of 1.39, meaning that its share price is 39% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Viking’s peers have a beta of 1.44, meaning that their average share price is 44% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Viking and its peers top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Viking	$6.97 billion	$1.15 billion	28.63
Viking Competitors	$3.71 billion	$250.20 million	-159.66

Viking has higher revenue and earnings than its peers. Viking is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares Viking and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Viking	19.33%	117.98%	10.80%
Viking Competitors	2.45%	-40.43%	2.13%

Summary

Viking beats its peers on 10 of the 13 factors compared.

About Viking

Viking Holdings Ltd engages in the passenger shipping and other forms of passenger transport in North America, the United Kingdom, and internationally. It operates through River and Ocean segments. The company also operates as a tour entrepreneur for passengers and related activities in tourism. As of December 31, 2023, it operated a fleet of 92 ships, including 81 river vessels comprising 58 Longships, 10 smaller classes based on the Longship design, 11 other river vessels, and 1 river vessel charter and the Viking Mississippi; 9 ocean ships; and 2 expedition ships. The company was founded in 1997 and is based in Pembroke, Bermuda.