HMR vs STNG: Which Is the Better Buy in 2026?

Last updated November 2026

Short answer

STNG is the larger of the two ($4.48B market cap): the incumbent the market prices for continued execution (9.75x forward earnings, beta -0.14). HMR is the smaller challenger ($79.64M), cheaper on forward earnings (5.40x): more room to run, but more to prove. The real question is which set of drivers you believe, and whether owning one (or both) leaves you over-concentrated.

HMR vs STNG: the tie-breaker metrics

Same yardstick, side by side (as of November 2026). Valuation lined up like this is most meaningful for two names in the same corner of the market, which these are. Figures are approximate; verify before investing.

Metric	HMR	STNG	What it tells you
Market cap	$79.64M	$4.48B	Size. The larger name is the incumbent; the smaller has more room to grow and more to prove.
Forward P/E	5.40	9.75	Valuation on next year's expected earnings, the same yardstick for both. Lower is cheaper for that growth; higher means the market is paying up.
Trailing P/E	45.00	4.55	Valuation on the last 12 months. A big drop from trailing to forward means the market expects earnings to jump, so more growth is already in the price.
Price vs 52-week range	48% of range	83% of range	Where today's price sits between the 52-week low and high. Near the high is momentum with less margin of safety; near the low is out of favor or a discount, depending on why.
Price / book	4.84	1.05	How much you pay over book value. Very high can signal an asset-light, high-return business or a rich price.

Reading it: HMR is the cheaper of the two on forward earnings, but cheaper is not the same as better. Pair the valuation with growth (how far the forward P/E sits below the trailing P/E) and risk (beta) before you decide.

Before you buy: how HMR and STNG affect your concentration

The metrics above tell you which is the marginally better business. The bigger risk for most people is not picking the slightly worse stock, it is over-concentrating. HMR and STNG share themes, so owning both, or adding either to what you already hold, can quietly push a large share of your portfolio into one bet.

This is the part a generic comparison page cannot answer, because it depends on what you own. Connect your brokerage and Walnut shows your real, combined HMR and STNG exposure, flags overlap with your existing positions, and tells you if adding one would tip you past a concentration you are comfortable with, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

What does Heidmar Maritime Holdings Corp. (HMR) do?

Heidmar is a commercial manager and pool operator for tankers. The operating business traces back to 1984 and runs branded vessel pools including Seawolf (VLCC), Blue Fin (Suezmax), Sigma (Aframax and LR2), Star Tankers (Panamax and LR1) and Dorado (MR product tankers). Shipowners place vessels into these pools, Heidmar markets the combined tonnage to charterers, and pool earnings flow back to participants while Heidmar collects commissions and management fees. On top of that fee business it charters in vessels itself and re-employs them on spot voyages and time charters to capture the spread, provides technical management and crewing, and sells eFleetWatch, a digital tool for tracking and managing vessels. As of April 2026 it reported roughly 50 vessels under commercial management representing about 6.5 million dwt; after adding seven vessels in the second quarter and closing the July 1, 2026 acquisition of Dutch ship manager Q-Shipping B.V. (nine vessels, plus footholds in the Netherlands, Turkey and a crewing base in Ukraine), it reported about 60 vessels under commercial management and 20 under technical management. The holding company was incorporated in May 2024 and is headquartered in Piraeus, Greece.

Full HMR guide

What does Scorpio Tankers Inc (STNG) do?

Scorpio Tankers Inc is one of the world's largest owners and operators of product tankers, the ships that carry refined petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and naphtha (as opposed to crude oil). Its fleet spans LR2, MR, and Handymax vessels, and by late September 2026 numbered 74 owned ships (25 LR2, 35 MR and 14 Handymax, average age ~10.2 years) as the company sold selected older tankers. The economics are straightforward but volatile: most vessels earn money in the spot and pool markets, where daily time-charter-equivalent (TCE) rates move with global refined-product demand, trade routes, refinery locations, and fleet supply. When those rates are high, a large fleet like Scorpio's generates enormous cash flow because much of a ship's cost is fixed; when rates fall, that same operating leverage cuts the other way.

Full STNG guide

HMR vs STNG: how do they differ?

Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.

HMR drivers: A tanker cycle stretched by sanctions and longer voyages; Asset-light fleet growth is the actual growth engine.
STNG drivers: Product-tanker spot rates drive everything; Deleveraging and a stronger balance sheet.

Which fits which kind of investor

A faster-growing, richer-valued name usually swings harder, so it suits a longer horizon and a higher tolerance for volatility; a steadier, more cash-generative business suits a more conservative or income-minded investor. The honest test is which set of risks you could hold through a drawdown: The concentration here is severe on every axis at once. For STNG, the dominant risk is shipping cyclicality: Scorpio's revenue and profits are tied to product-tanker spot rates, which can fall sharply if refined-product demand weakens, trade routes shorten, or a wave of newbuild vessels expands supply.

HMR or STNG: which should you pick?

Growth-minded investors who believe the theme has years to run tend to accept the richer multiple for more upside; value-minded investors lean toward the cheaper forward earnings and steadier profile. Pick HMR if you believe its drivers more; STNG if you believe its. Many investors hold both, but since they share themes, that is a concentrated bet, not diversification. Decide deliberately and check overlap. For the full detail, see the HMR and STNG guides.

HMR vs STNG: the full fundamentals

HMR. Revenue (~$88M trailing) still sits close to market cap (~$100M), but the two revenue lines are not economically alike. In the second quarter of 2026 trade revenues (commissions and management fees, the high-margin asset-light core) were roughly $5.8M, while voyage and time charter revenues were roughly $23.2M of gross revenue on chartered-in tonnage that converts to only a thin spread, which is why a ~203% jump in revenue produced roughly $2.2M of net income. With the stock up ~104% in 2026, the trailing P/E near 56 and book multiple near 6 now lean on analysts' forward EPS of roughly $0.20 for 2026 and $0.25 for 2027 being delivered; third-quarter results are expected around November 5.

STNG. For a cyclical shipping company, earnings multiples matter less than where tanker rates sit in the cycle and what the fleet is worth net of debt, and STNG trades near book value. The ~5x trailing P/E reflects peak, war-affected earnings that consensus expects to roughly halve in 2027, which is why the forward multiple on 2027 is more than twice the trailing one. Third-quarter results arrive October 29, 2026, with consensus near ~$2.13 of EPS on ~$254 million of revenue. Nothing here is investment advice.

Headline figures (approximate, October 2026): HMR shows revenue (ttm) ~$88M; Q2 2026 up ~203% year over year, q2 2026 revenue ~$29.0M (trade ~$5.8M, voyage and time charter ~$23.2M), up from ~$9.6M, q2 2026 net income ~$2.2M (~$0.04 per basic share vs ~$0.10 estimate), first-half 2026 net income ~$5.0M; adjusted EBITDA ~$5.7M; STNG shows revenue (ttm) ~$1.22 billion; Q2 2026 ~$392 million, up ~78% year over year, net income (ttm) ~$816 million, trailing EPS of ~$16.06 (includes vessel-sale gains), margins (ttm) ~60% operating, ~67% net, p/e ~5x trailing; ~7x on 2026 consensus EPS of ~$11.74; ~12.5x on 2027 consensus of ~$6.61.

The bottom line: HMR vs STNG

HMR and STNG are related but distinct: same themes, different businesses and risks. Neither wins in the abstract; the right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme. Walnut can show your combined HMR and STNG exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.

Wondering how HMR or STNG fits the portfolio you already own? Walnut is an AI investing app that connects your brokerage read-only and answers questions like that about your actual holdings: overlap, concentration, and how each position tracks the S&P 500. Compare the best AI portfolio analyzers or see the best AI investing apps in 2026.

Investing in Heidmar Maritime Holdings Corp. with AI

Connect the broker you already use and ask Walnut's AI how HMR fits what you actually hold: whether you own it already through a fund, what it would do to your concentration, and how it has tracked the S&P 500. Read-only by default, and you approve anything before it reaches your broker.

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FAQ

What is the difference between HMR and STNG?

Heidmar is a commercial manager and pool operator for tankers. Scorpio Tankers Inc is one of the world's largest owners and operators of product tankers, the ships that carry refined petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and naphtha (as opposed to crude oil). They show up together because they share investment themes, but they are different businesses, so the better fit depends on which thesis you are expressing.

Is HMR or STNG the better stock?

Neither is universally better. STNG is the larger incumbent; HMR is the smaller challenger and looks cheaper on forward earnings. Walnut is informational, not investment advice. Compare what each does, the tie-breaker metrics above, and the risks, then decide which fits your thesis and what you already own.

Which is cheaper, HMR or STNG?

On forward P/E (as of November 2026), HMR trades at 5.40x and STNG at 9.75x, so HMR is the cheaper of the two on next year's expected earnings. A lower multiple is not automatically the better buy: a richer valuation can be justified by faster growth, and a lower one can reflect real risk. Weigh the multiple against how fast each business is compounding.

Should you own both HMR and STNG?

Because they share themes, owning both concentrates you in that theme. That can be intentional (a focused bet) or accidental (less diversification than it looks). Walnut can show your combined exposure across both, and whether adding either over-concentrates you, before you buy.

What are the risks of HMR vs STNG?

HMR: The concentration here is severe on every axis at once. Two related shareholders, Rhea Marine Ltd. and Maistros Shipinvest Corp., each hold roughly 26.2 million of roughly 59.0 million shares outstanding, so Heidmar qualifies as a controlled company under Nasdaq rules and is exempt from several governance requirements, leaving public holders with a float in the single-digit millions of shares, wide spreads, air pockets on any size order, and effectively no influence over outcomes. Customer concentration is just as tight: the top three customers each accounted for between 12% and 16% of revenue and together produced roughly 43% of fiscal 2025 revenue (about $23.8M), while Capital Maritime alone supplied 25 of the 49 managed vessels and roughly 37% of pool revenue and is owned by the father of the indirect owner of Maistros Shipinvest, so the largest counterparty and the control block are family-connected rather than arm's length. Dilution risk is live even though the draw has been small: the June 2025 $20M purchase agreement with B. Riley Principal Capital II lets the company sell shares at its discretion, and a resale prospectus covers up to 11,080,332 shares, which near a dollar would be meaningfully dilutive against a 59 million share count. The stock received a Nasdaq minimum bid price deficiency notice on April 24, 2026 and regained compliance on June 2, 2026 without a reverse split, and has since rallied to roughly $1.69 (October 16, 2026) within a 52-week range of roughly $0.73 to $2.02; a stock that doubled in a year on a thin float can give back gains just as fast if the freight cycle turns, and at about 6 times book value and 56 times trailing earnings the price assumes the 2026 profit run continues. There has also been no permanent chief financial officer announced since Niki Fotiou departed on May 31, 2026, with the chief executive overseeing finance during the search, and director Andreas Konialidis stepped down from the board on October 13, 2026 (the company said it was not over any disagreement), added governance and reporting-quality risks at a company carrying only about $16.6M of shareholders' equity whose profitability depends on a spot market that fell 43% to 55% on key VLCC routes between November 2025 and January 2026. STNG: The dominant risk is shipping cyclicality: Scorpio's revenue and profits are tied to product-tanker spot rates, which can fall sharply if refined-product demand weakens, trade routes shorten, or a wave of newbuild vessels expands supply. Because much of the fleet trades in the spot market, earnings and the cash that funds dividends and buybacks can drop quickly. Geopolitics is now the single largest swing factor: the 2026 surge in rates rests on the disruption around the Strait of Hormuz, and a ceasefire or reopening of the strait could compress rates quickly, as the September dip on Iran's reopening offer showed. Analysts already model 2027 EPS roughly ~44% below 2026, so a ~5x trailing P/E on peak earnings can overstate how cheap the stock is. Insider selling has drawn attention too, with the COO selling ~$11.1 million of stock in September 2026. Fuel costs, drydocking, regulation, and environmental rules add expense and uncertainty, and newbuild orders (including ~$270 million for two VLCCs) create future capital commitments. Even with a net cash balance sheet, this remains a volatile, capital-intensive business whose stock can move sharply with the freight cycle, and past strong rates are no guarantee of future ones.

Walnut is informational, not investment advice. This page is descriptive and not a recommendation to buy or sell HMR or STNG; figures are approximate and dated (as of November 2026). Verify current data before investing.