Castor Maritime (NASDAQ:CTRM) & Diana Shipping (NYSE:DSX) Head-To-Head Survey

Diana Shipping (NYSE:DSX) and Castor Maritime (NASDAQ:CTRM) are both small-cap industrials companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, valuation, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Diana Shipping and Castor Maritime, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Diana Shipping	0	1	0	0	2.00
Castor Maritime	0	1	0	0	2.00

Institutional and Insider Ownership

48.7% of Diana Shipping shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 1.1% of Castor Maritime shares are owned by institutional investors. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Diana Shipping and Castor Maritime”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Diana Shipping	$213.54 million	1.40	$17.83 million	$0.48	4.99
Castor Maritime	$81.81 million	0.16	$19.27 million	$1.61	0.86

Castor Maritime has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Diana Shipping. Castor Maritime is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Diana Shipping, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Diana Shipping and Castor Maritime’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Diana Shipping	27.88%	7.55%	3.32%
Castor Maritime	109.09%	4.69%	3.51%

Volatility & Risk

Diana Shipping has a beta of 0.69, suggesting that its share price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Castor Maritime has a beta of 1.38, suggesting that its share price is 38% more volatile than the S&P 500.

About Diana Shipping

Diana Shipping Inc. provides shipping transportation services. The company transports a range of dry bulk cargoes, including commodities, such as iron ore, coal, grain, and other materials in shipping routes worldwide. As of March 1, 2024, it operated a fleet of 38 dry bulk vessels, including 4 Newcastlemax, 8 Capesize, 5 Post-Panamax, 6 Kamsarmax, 9 Ultramax, and 6 Panamax. The company was formerly known as Diana Shipping Investments Corp. and changed its name to Diana Shipping Inc. in February 2005. Diana Shipping Inc. was incorporated in 1999 and is based in Athens, Greece.

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.