Pacific Basin Shipping (OTCMKTS:PCFBF) and Golden Ocean Group (NASDAQ:GOGL) Critical Analysis

Pacific Basin Shipping (OTCMKTS:PCFBF) and Golden Ocean Group (NASDAQ:GOGL) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation and institutional ownership.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

37.4% of Pacific Basin Shipping shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 22.0% of Golden Ocean Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Pacific Basin Shipping and Golden Ocean Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Pacific Basin Shipping	N/A	N/A	N/A	($0.05)	-5.89
Golden Ocean Group	$972.69 million	2.29	$112.27 million	$0.93	12.01

Golden Ocean Group has higher revenue and earnings than Pacific Basin Shipping. Pacific Basin Shipping is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Golden Ocean Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Pacific Basin Shipping and Golden Ocean Group, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Pacific Basin Shipping	0	0	0	0	N/A
Golden Ocean Group	0	2	0	0	2.00

Golden Ocean Group has a consensus price target of $14.50, suggesting a potential upside of 29.81%. Given Golden Ocean Group’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Golden Ocean Group is more favorable than Pacific Basin Shipping.

Profitability

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

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

Dividends

Pacific Basin Shipping pays an annual dividend of $0.01 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Golden Ocean Group pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 10.7%. Pacific Basin Shipping pays out -13.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Golden Ocean Group pays out 129.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Summary

Golden Ocean Group beats Pacific Basin Shipping on 8 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

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.