Nordic American Tankers (NYSE:NAT) Shares Climb 4% - Here's What Happened

Key Points

• Nordic American Tankers shares rose 4% to about $8.54, although trading volume was roughly 90% below the average daily level.
• Analyst sentiment remains mixed: B. Riley raised its price target to $10 and maintained a Buy rating, while the broader consensus is Hold with an average target of $6.00.
• The company increased its quarterly dividend to $0.27 per share, equivalent to a $1.08 annualized payout and a 12.7% yield; its latest quarterly EPS of $0.32 also exceeded estimates.

Nordic American Tankers Limited (NYSE:NAT - Get Free Report) shot up 4% on Thursday. The stock traded as high as $8.55 and last traded at $8.5370. 408,835 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 90% from the average daily volume of 4,250,135 shares. The stock had previously closed at $8.21.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on NAT. B. Riley Financial upped their price target on Nordic American Tankers from $8.00 to $10.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Nordic American Tankers from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, October 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut shares of Nordic American Tankers from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "hold (c)" rating in a report on Friday, August 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $6.00.

Nordic American Tankers Stock Up 3.2%

The firm has a market capitalization of $1.79 billion, a PE ratio of 14.36 and a beta of -0.56. The business's fifty day moving average price is $7.22 and its 200 day moving average price is $6.28. The company has a quick ratio of 3.05, a current ratio of 3.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78.

Nordic American Tankers (NYSE:NAT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 27th. The shipping company reported $0.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.30 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $79.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.18 million. Nordic American Tankers had a return on equity of 20.58% and a net margin of 47.04%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Nordic American Tankers Limited will post 0.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Nordic American Tankers Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 24th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 10th were issued a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 10th. This is an increase from Nordic American Tankers's previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 12.7%. Nordic American Tankers's dividend payout ratio is presently 183.05%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nordic American Tankers

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. BlackRock Inc. raised its position in Nordic American Tankers by 6.2% during the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 12,764,448 shares of the shipping company's stock worth $70,715,000 after buying an additional 746,279 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Nordic American Tankers by 3.9% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 12,189,811 shares of the shipping company's stock worth $71,430,000 after acquiring an additional 460,555 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Nordic American Tankers by 7.1% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,564,186 shares of the shipping company's stock worth $25,286,000 after acquiring an additional 302,212 shares during the period. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new position in Nordic American Tankers during the second quarter worth about $6,302,000. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC purchased a new position in Nordic American Tankers during the second quarter worth about $5,514,000. 44.29% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Nordic American Tankers

Nordic American Tankers Limited NYSE: NAT is a Bermuda-based international shipping company that owns and operates crude oil tankers. The company's fleet is focused primarily on Suezmax vessels, which are designed to transport large quantities of crude oil and are sized to transit the Suez Canal.

Nordic American Tankers employs a combination of voyage charters, time charters and other commercial arrangements to provide crude oil transportation services to customers in the global energy industry.

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