Nordic American Tankers (NYSE:NAT) Stock Falls 7.2% – Time to Sell?

Shares of Nordic American Tankers Limited (NYSE:NAT) traded down 7.2% during trading on Wednesday. The stock traded as low as $8.40 and last traded at $8.1550. Approximately 826,956 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 81% from the average session volume of 4,276,120 shares. The stock had previously closed at $8.79.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on NAT shares. Wall Street Zen downgraded Nordic American Tankers from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, October 3rd. B. Riley Financial raised their price objective on shares of Nordic American Tankers from $8.00 to $10.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded Nordic American Tankers from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $6.00.

Nordic American Tankers Price Performance

The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $7.39 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $6.37. The stock has a market cap of $1.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.87 and a beta of -0.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 3.05 and a current ratio of 3.27.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates 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 company had revenue of $79.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $84.18 million. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Nordic American Tankers Limited will post 0.60 EPS for the current year.

Nordic American Tankers Increases Dividend

The firm 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 a positive change 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 13.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 10th. Nordic American Tankers’s payout ratio is 183.05%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

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