Nordic American Tankers (NYSE:NAT) Stock Price Down 7.8% – Time to Sell?

Shares of Nordic American Tankers Limited (NYSE:NAT) traded down 7.8% during trading on Monday. The company traded as low as $7.27 and last traded at $7.2950. 2,560,461 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 40% from the average session volume of 4,300,188 shares. The stock had previously closed at $7.91.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on NAT. Evercore reissued an “underperform” rating and issued a $7.00 price objective on shares of Nordic American Tankers in a report on Tuesday, October 27th. Weiss Ratings raised Nordic American Tankers from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 8th. B. Riley Financial raised their price target on shares of Nordic American Tankers from $8.00 to $10.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 5th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Nordic American Tankers from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, October 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $6.83.

Nordic American Tankers Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 3.05, a current ratio of 3.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $7.71 and a 200-day moving average price of $6.11. The company has a market cap of $1.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.91 and a beta of -0.50.

Nordic American Tankers (NYSE:NAT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 27th. The shipping company reported $0.32 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $79.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $84.18 million. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Nordic American Tankers Limited will post 0.60 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nordic American Tankers Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 24th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 10th were paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. This is a boost 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 15.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 10th. Nordic American Tankers’s payout ratio is 183.05%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nordic American Tankers

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Nordic American Tankers by 3.9% during the 1st 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 during the period. BlackRock Inc. boosted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 746,279 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in Nordic American Tankers by 7.1% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,564,186 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $25,286,000 after purchasing an additional 302,212 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Nordic American Tankers during the second quarter valued at approximately $6,302,000. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC increased its position in shares of Nordic American Tankers by 7.5% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 949,606 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $5,565,000 after purchasing an additional 66,569 shares during the last quarter. 44.29% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Nordic American Tankers

Nordic American Tankers Limited (NYSE:NAT) is a shipping company focused on the international transportation of crude oil. The company owns and operates Suezmax tankers, a class of vessels designed to carry large volumes of crude oil while remaining within the size limits of the Suez Canal.

Nordic American Tankers’ vessels serve global crude-oil markets and transport cargoes between major producing and consuming regions. The company’s operations are influenced by international seaborne trade, vessel chartering conditions, and demand for crude-oil transportation.

Founded in 1995, Nordic American Tankers is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda, and has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange since that year.