Financial Analysis: Global Ship Lease (NYSE:GSL) and Capital Clean Energy Carriers (NASDAQ:CCEC)

Global Ship Lease (NYSE:GSL) and Capital Clean Energy Carriers (NASDAQ:CCEC) are both small-cap transportation companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership and risk.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Global Ship Lease and Capital Clean Energy Carriers”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Global Ship Lease	$674.79 million	1.15	$304.50 million	$9.03	2.34
Capital Clean Energy Carriers	$360.59 million	2.80	$47.21 million	$1.30	14.02

Global Ship Lease has higher revenue and earnings than Capital Clean Energy Carriers. Global Ship Lease is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Capital Clean Energy Carriers, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Global Ship Lease and Capital Clean Energy Carriers, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Global Ship Lease	0	1	1	0	2.50
Capital Clean Energy Carriers	0	0	2	1	3.33

Global Ship Lease currently has a consensus target price of $28.00, suggesting a potential upside of 32.63%. Capital Clean Energy Carriers has a consensus target price of $24.00, suggesting a potential upside of 31.65%. Given Global Ship Lease’s higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Global Ship Lease is more favorable than Capital Clean Energy Carriers.

Dividends

Global Ship Lease pays an annual dividend of $1.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.5%. Capital Clean Energy Carriers pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Global Ship Lease pays out 19.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Capital Clean Energy Carriers pays out 46.2% 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. Global Ship Lease is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Volatility & Risk

Global Ship Lease has a beta of 1.55, suggesting that its share price is 55% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Capital Clean Energy Carriers has a beta of 0.83, suggesting that its share price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Global Ship Lease and Capital Clean Energy Carriers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Global Ship Lease	46.38%	27.88%	16.36%
Capital Clean Energy Carriers	25.79%	9.72%	3.24%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

50.1% of Global Ship Lease shares are owned by institutional investors. 7.4% of Global Ship Lease shares are owned by company insiders. 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.

Summary

Global Ship Lease beats Capital Clean Energy Carriers on 12 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Global Ship Lease

Global Ship Lease, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in owning and chartering of containerships under fixed-rate charters to container shipping companies worldwide. As of March 11, 2024, it owned 68 mid-sized and smaller containerships, ranging from 2,207 to 11,040 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU), with an aggregate capacity of 375,406 TEU. The company was founded in 2007 and is based in Athens, Greece.

About Capital Clean Energy Carriers

Capital Clean Energy Carriers Corp., a shipping company, provides marine transportation services in Greece. The company’s vessels provide a range of cargoes, including liquefied natural gas, containerized goods, and cargo under short-term voyage charters, and medium to long-term time charters. It owns vessels, including Neo-Panamax container vessels, Panamax container vessels, cape-size bulk carrier, and LNG carriers. In addition, the company produces and distributes oil and natural gas, including biofuels, motor oil, lubricants, petrol, crudes, liquefied natural gas, marine fuels, natural gas liquids, and petrochemicals. It serves as the general partner of the company. The company was formerly known as Capital Product Partners L.P. and changed its name to Capital Clean Energy Carriers Corp. in August 2024. Capital Clean Energy Carriers Corp. was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Piraeus, Greece. Capital Clean Energy Carriers Corp. operates as a subsidiary of Capital Maritime & Trading Corp.