Nordic American Tankers Limited (NYSE:NAT) Announces Dividend Increase – $0.13 Per Share

Nordic American Tankers Limited (NYSE:NAT) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, November 28th. Investors of record on Monday, December 8th will be given a dividend of 0.13 per share by the shipping company on Monday, December 22nd. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 14.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 8th. This is a 30.0% increase from Nordic American Tankers’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10.

Nordic American Tankers has raised its dividend payment by an average of 0.3%annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 1 consecutive years. Nordic American Tankers has a dividend payout ratio of 114.3% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Equities analysts expect Nordic American Tankers to earn $0.26 per share next year, which means the company may not be able to cover its $0.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 153.8%.

Nordic American Tankers Price Performance

Shares of NYSE NAT opened at $3.63 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 2.33 and a quick ratio of 2.04. The company has a market cap of $768.66 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.86 and a beta of -0.36. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $3.51 and its two-hundred day moving average is $3.07. Nordic American Tankers has a 1-year low of $2.13 and a 1-year high of $3.93.

Nordic American Tankers (NYSE:NAT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 28th. The shipping company reported ($0.01) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.01 by ($0.02). Nordic American Tankers had a return on equity of 2.67% and a net margin of 7.58%.The company had revenue of $40.18 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $52.89 million. Analysts forecast that Nordic American Tankers will post 0.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NAT has been the subject of several analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Nordic American Tankers in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $3.50 target price on shares of Nordic American Tankers in a research note on Friday. Wall Street Zen cut Nordic American Tankers from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 22nd. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Nordic American Tankers from $2.50 to $3.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating, According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $3.25.

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.