Critical Contrast: Castor Maritime (NASDAQ:CTRM) versus Capital Clean Energy Carriers (NASDAQ:CCEC)

Capital Clean Energy Carriers (NASDAQ:CCEC) and Castor Maritime (NASDAQ:CTRM) are both small-cap transportation companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, risk, profitability and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Capital Clean Energy Carriers and Castor Maritime, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Capital Clean Energy Carriers	0	0	1	1	3.50
Castor Maritime	0	0	0	0	0.00

Capital Clean Energy Carriers presently has a consensus price target of $22.00, indicating a potential upside of 18.22%. Given Capital Clean Energy Carriers’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Capital Clean Energy Carriers is more favorable than Castor Maritime.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Capital Clean Energy Carriers and Castor Maritime”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Capital Clean Energy Carriers	$360.59 million	2.86	$47.21 million	$1.30	14.32
Castor Maritime	$76.44 million	0.45	$38.64 million	$3.35	1.06

Capital Clean Energy Carriers has higher revenue and earnings than Castor Maritime. Castor Maritime 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.

Profitability

This table compares Capital Clean Energy Carriers and Castor Maritime’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Capital Clean Energy Carriers	25.79%	9.80%	3.39%
Castor Maritime	95.54%	13.09%	10.70%

Volatility and Risk

Capital Clean Energy Carriers has a beta of 0.86, indicating that its share price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Castor Maritime has a beta of 0.86, indicating that its share price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

1.1% of Castor Maritime shares are held by institutional investors. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Capital Clean Energy Carriers beats Castor Maritime on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Castor Maritime

Castor Maritime Inc. provides shipping services worldwide. The company operates through Dry Bulk Vessels and Containerships segments. It offers seaborne transportation services for dry bulk cargo; and commodities, such as iron ore, coal, soybeans, etc. As of December 31, 2023, the company owned and operated a fleet of 17 vessels primarily consisting of one Capesize, five Kamsarmax, two Handysize tanker vessels, and nine Panamax dry bulk vessels, as well as two 2,700 TEU containership vessels. Castor Maritime Inc. was incorporated in 2017 and is based in Limassol, Cyprus.