KNOT Offshore Partners (NYSE:KNOP) and Pacific Basin Shipping (OTCMKTS:PCFBF) Critical Comparison

KNOT Offshore Partners (NYSE:KNOP) and Pacific Basin Shipping (OTCMKTS:PCFBF) are both industrials companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations and risk.

Dividends

KNOT Offshore Partners pays an annual dividend of $0.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Pacific Basin Shipping pays an annual dividend of $0.01 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. KNOT Offshore Partners pays out -13.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Pacific Basin Shipping pays out -13.8% 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. Pacific Basin Shipping is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for KNOT Offshore Partners and Pacific Basin Shipping, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
KNOT Offshore Partners	0	0	0	0	N/A
Pacific Basin Shipping	0	0	0	0	N/A

Insider and Institutional Ownership

26.8% of KNOT Offshore Partners shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 37.4% of Pacific Basin Shipping shares are held by institutional investors. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares KNOT Offshore Partners and Pacific Basin Shipping’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
KNOT Offshore Partners	0.66%	2.84%	0.95%
Pacific Basin Shipping	N/A	N/A	N/A

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares KNOT Offshore Partners and Pacific Basin Shipping”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
KNOT Offshore Partners	$296.76 million	0.75	-$33.57 million	($0.76)	-8.63
Pacific Basin Shipping	N/A	N/A	N/A	($0.05)	-5.42

Pacific Basin Shipping has lower revenue, but higher earnings than KNOT Offshore Partners. KNOT Offshore Partners is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Pacific Basin Shipping, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Pacific Basin Shipping beats KNOT Offshore Partners on 5 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About KNOT Offshore Partners

KNOT Offshore Partners LP acquires, owns, and operates shuttle tankers under long-term charters in the North Sea and Brazil. The company provides loading, transportation, and discharge of crude oil under time charters and bareboat charters. The company was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Aberdeen, the United Kingdom.

About Pacific Basin Shipping

Pacific Basin Shipping Limited, an investment holding company, engages in the provision of dry bulk shipping services worldwide. The company offers its shipping services that mainly carry major and minor bulks, including grains, ores, logs/forest products, bauxite, sugar, concentrates, cement and clinkers, coal/coke, fertilizers, alumina, steel, pet-coke, salt, sand and gypsum, and scrap. It also offers shipping consulting, crewing, secretarial, and ship agency and management services. In addition, the company is involved in the vessel owning and chartering, and convertible bonds issuing activities. It has a fleet of 266 owned and chartered vessels, including 121 Handysize, 1 Capesize, and 144 Supramax/Ultramax vessels. The company was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Wong Chuk Hang, Hong Kong.