Nordic American Tankers’ (NAT) “Hold” Rating Reaffirmed at Jefferies Financial Group

Nordic American Tankers (NYSE:NAT)‘s stock had its “hold” rating restated by Jefferies Financial Group in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $3.50 price objective on the shipping company’s stock. Jefferies Financial Group’s price objective points to a potential upside of 29.63% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Nordic American Tankers from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on shares of Nordic American Tankers from $4.50 to $4.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 30th.

Nordic American Tankers Stock Down 6.2 %

NAT stock traded down $0.18 during trading on Friday, hitting $2.70. 2,917,537 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,503,244. Nordic American Tankers has a 1 year low of $2.68 and a 1 year high of $4.64. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $3.38 and its two-hundred day moving average is $3.68. The stock has a market cap of $563.76 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.35 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.

Nordic American Tankers (NYSE:NAT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shipping company reported $0.10 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $66.10 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $54.34 million. Nordic American Tankers had a net margin of 26.35% and a return on equity of 11.60%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.13 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Nordic American Tankers will post 0.28 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Nordic American Tankers

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in NAT. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Nordic American Tankers by 19.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,682,487 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $6,595,000 after buying an additional 275,707 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in shares of Nordic American Tankers by 18.0% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 58,791 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $231,000 after buying an additional 8,985 shares during the last quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Nordic American Tankers in the first quarter worth approximately $45,000. Tidal Investments LLC raised its stake in Nordic American Tankers by 18.4% during the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 96,905 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $380,000 after acquiring an additional 15,053 shares during the period. Finally, Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Nordic American Tankers by 6.9% during the 2nd quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 46,596 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $185,000 after acquiring an additional 3,003 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 44.29% of the company’s stock.

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.