Critical Review: Global Ship Lease (NYSE:GSL) vs. Cadeler A/S (NYSE:CDLR)

Global Ship Lease (NYSE:GSL) and Cadeler A/S (NYSE:CDLR) are both small-cap transportation companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, dividends, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Profitability

This table compares Global Ship Lease and Cadeler A/S’s 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%
Cadeler A/S	N/A	N/A	N/A

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Global Ship Lease and Cadeler A/S”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Global Ship Lease	$701.48 million	1.12	$304.50 million	$9.03	2.36
Cadeler A/S	$180.22 million	8.67	$12.44 million	N/A	N/A

Global Ship Lease has higher revenue and earnings than Cadeler A/S.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

50.1% of Global Ship Lease shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 53.0% of Cadeler A/S shares are held by institutional investors. 7.4% of Global Ship Lease shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

Global Ship Lease has a beta of 1.53, suggesting that its share price is 53% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cadeler A/S has a beta of 0.83, suggesting that its share price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Global Ship Lease and Cadeler A/S, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Global Ship Lease	0	1	1	0	2.50
Cadeler A/S	0	0	1	0	3.00

Global Ship Lease presently has a consensus price target of $28.00, indicating a potential upside of 31.50%. Cadeler A/S has a consensus price target of $37.00, indicating a potential upside of 107.81%. Given Cadeler A/S’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Cadeler A/S is more favorable than Global Ship Lease.

Summary

Global Ship Lease beats Cadeler A/S on 7 of the 11 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 Cadeler A/S

Cadeler A/S operates as an offshore wind farm transportation and installation contractor in Denmark. It also provides wind farm construction, maintenance, decommissioning, and other tasks within the offshore industry, as well as marine and engineering services. The company owns and operates four offshore jack-up windfarm installation vessels. Cadeler A/S was incorporated in 2008 and is headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark.