Nordic American Tankers (NYSE:NAT) Downgraded by Wall Street Zen to “Buy”

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Nordic American Tankers (NYSE:NAT) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Saturday,Wall Street Zen reports.

Several other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. B. Riley Financial raised their price target on Nordic American Tankers from $7.50 to $8.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 28th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Nordic American Tankers from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Friday, August 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $5.33.

Nordic American Tankers Trading Up 2.9%

Nordic American Tankers stock opened at $8.40 on Friday. Nordic American Tankers has a 52 week low of $3.10 and a 52 week high of $8.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 3.05 and a current ratio of 3.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.24 and a beta of -0.56. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $7.11 and a 200 day simple moving average of $6.21.

Nordic American Tankers (NYSE:NAT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 27th. The shipping company reported $0.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.02. Nordic American Tankers had a return on equity of 20.58% and a net margin of 47.04%.The firm had revenue of $79.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.18 million. Analysts expect that Nordic American Tankers will post 0.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Nordic American Tankers Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 24th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 10th were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. 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 yield of 12.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 10th. Nordic American Tankers’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 183.05%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Nordic American Tankers

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in Nordic American Tankers by 6.2% during the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 12,764,448 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $70,715,000 after purchasing an additional 746,279 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in 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 buying an additional 460,555 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new position in Nordic American Tankers in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,692,000. Tidal Investments LLC increased its holdings in Nordic American Tankers by 108.2% in the 2nd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 279,390 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $1,548,000 after buying an additional 145,184 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new position in shares of Nordic American Tankers in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,890,000. 44.29% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Nordic American Tankers Company Profile

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.