Nordic American Tankers’ (NAT) Hold Rating Reiterated at Jefferies Financial Group

Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed their hold rating on shares of Nordic American Tankers (NYSE:NAT) in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. Jefferies Financial Group currently has a $3.50 price target on the shipping company’s stock.

NAT has been the subject of several other research reports. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on shares of Nordic American Tankers from $4.50 to $4.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 30th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Nordic American Tankers from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th.

Nordic American Tankers Price Performance

NYSE:NAT opened at $2.68 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $559.58 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.24 and a beta of -0.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.63. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $3.35 and a 200-day simple moving average of $3.66. Nordic American Tankers has a 1 year low of $2.63 and a 1 year high of $4.64.

Nordic American Tankers (NYSE:NAT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shipping company reported $0.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by $0.03. Nordic American Tankers had a return on equity of 11.60% and a net margin of 26.35%. The company had revenue of $66.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $54.34 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.13 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Nordic American Tankers will post 0.28 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nordic American Tankers

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in Nordic American Tankers by 5.7% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 11,606,339 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $46,195,000 after acquiring an additional 621,588 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP grew its stake in Nordic American Tankers by 67.6% in the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 3,774,100 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $13,851,000 after purchasing an additional 1,521,900 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in Nordic American Tankers by 40.5% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,499,565 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $13,928,000 after purchasing an additional 1,009,096 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Nordic American Tankers by 19.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,682,487 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $6,595,000 after purchasing an additional 275,707 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Nordic American Tankers by 122.8% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,291,682 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $5,141,000 after buying an additional 711,973 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 44.29% of the company’s stock.

Nordic American Tankers Company Profile

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.