Nordic American Tankers (NYSE:NAT) and Cross Timbers Royalty Trust (NYSE:CRT) Head-To-Head Review

Cross Timbers Royalty Trust (NYSE:CRT) and Nordic American Tankers (NYSE:NAT) are both small-cap energy companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, profitability, valuation, dividends and institutional ownership.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Cross Timbers Royalty Trust and Nordic American Tankers, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cross Timbers Royalty Trust	0	1	0	0	2.00
Nordic American Tankers	1	2	1	0	2.00

Nordic American Tankers has a consensus price target of $6.83, indicating a potential downside of 2.03%. Given Nordic American Tankers’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Nordic American Tankers is more favorable than Cross Timbers Royalty Trust.

Dividends

Cross Timbers Royalty Trust pays an annual dividend of $3.33 per share and has a dividend yield of 25.7%. Nordic American Tankers pays an annual dividend of $1.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 15.5%. Cross Timbers Royalty Trust pays out 628.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Nordic American Tankers pays out 183.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Nordic American Tankers has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

9.7% of Cross Timbers Royalty Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 44.3% of Nordic American Tankers shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.4% of Cross Timbers Royalty Trust shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.9% of Nordic American Tankers shares are owned by 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.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Cross Timbers Royalty Trust and Nordic American Tankers”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cross Timbers Royalty Trust	$5.79 million	13.44	$6.15 million	$0.53	24.46
Nordic American Tankers	$182.54 million	8.09	$12.27 million	$0.59	11.82

Nordic American Tankers has higher revenue and earnings than Cross Timbers Royalty Trust. Nordic American Tankers is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Cross Timbers Royalty Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk and Volatility

Cross Timbers Royalty Trust has a beta of 0.01, suggesting that its stock price is 99% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nordic American Tankers has a beta of -0.5, suggesting that its stock price is 150% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Cross Timbers Royalty Trust and Nordic American Tankers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cross Timbers Royalty Trust	74.04%	147.68%	81.96%
Nordic American Tankers	47.04%	20.58%	10.38%

About Cross Timbers Royalty Trust

Cross Timbers Royalty Trust operates as an express trust in the United States. It holds 90% net profits interests in certain producing and nonproducing royalty and overriding royalty interest properties in Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico; and 75% net profits working interest in four properties in Texas and three properties in Oklahoma. The company was founded in 1991 and is based in Dallas, Texas.

About Nordic American Tankers

Nordic American Tankers Limited, a tanker company, acquires and charters double-hull tankers in Bermuda and internationally. It operates a fleet of 20 Suezmax crude oil tankers. The company was incorporated in 1995 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda.