Reviewing Viking (NYSE:VIK) and Golden Ocean Group (NASDAQ:GOGL)

Golden Ocean Group (NASDAQ:GOGL) and Viking (NYSE:VIK) are both transportation companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, risk, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Golden Ocean Group and Viking, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Golden Ocean Group	0	2	0	0	2.00
Viking	0	3	9	0	2.75

Golden Ocean Group currently has a consensus price target of $14.50, indicating a potential upside of 10.10%. Viking has a consensus price target of $37.17, indicating a potential upside of 6.34%. Given Golden Ocean Group’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Golden Ocean Group is more favorable than Viking.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Golden Ocean Group and Viking”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Golden Ocean Group	$885.77 million	2.97	$112.27 million	$0.93	14.16
Viking	$4.71 billion	3.20	-$1.86 billion	N/A	N/A

Golden Ocean Group has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Viking.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

22.0% of Golden Ocean Group shares are held by institutional investors. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Golden Ocean Group	22.01%	10.57%	5.79%
Viking	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary

Golden Ocean Group beats Viking on 6 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Golden Ocean Group

Golden Ocean Group Limited, a shipping company, owns and operates a fleet of dry bulk vessels worldwide. The company’s dry bulk vessels comprise Newcastlemax, Capesize, and Panamax vessels operating in the spot and time charter markets. It also transports a range of bulk commodities, including ores, coal, grains, and fertilizers. As of March 20, 2024, the company owned a fleet of 83 dry bulk vessels. Golden Ocean Group Limited is based in Hamilton, Bermuda.

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.