Nordic American Tankers Limited (NYSE:NAT) Short Interest Up 75.3% in April

Nordic American Tankers Limited (NYSE:NAT) was the target of a significant growth in short interest during the month of April. As of April 30th, there was short interest totaling 18,647,101 shares, a growth of 75.3% from the April 15th total of 10,635,172 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 4,813,093 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.9 days. Currently, 9.1% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Evercore cut shares of Nordic American Tankers from an “in-line” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $4.50 price objective for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $4.00.

Institutional Trading of Nordic American Tankers

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of NAT. Torren Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Nordic American Tankers in the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Diversify Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Nordic American Tankers in the 1st quarter valued at $56,000. BlueStem Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Nordic American Tankers in the 3rd quarter valued at $32,000. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Nordic American Tankers in the 3rd quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management acquired a new position in shares of Nordic American Tankers in the 1st quarter valued at $61,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 44.29% of the company’s stock.

Nordic American Tankers Stock Performance

NYSE:NAT traded up $0.05 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $5.52. 1,129,242 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,351,419. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 78.94 and a beta of -0.54. Nordic American Tankers has a twelve month low of $2.55 and a twelve month high of $6.34. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $5.67 and a 200 day moving average of $4.57. The company has a current ratio of 2.24, a quick ratio of 1.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87.

Nordic American Tankers (NYSE:NAT) last released its earnings results on Friday, February 27th. The shipping company reported $0.06 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.09 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $58.76 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $69.43 million. Nordic American Tankers had a net margin of 6.39% and a return on equity of 2.47%. On average, analysts forecast that Nordic American Tankers will post 0.43 EPS for the current year.

Nordic American Tankers Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th were issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 12.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 10th. This is a boost from Nordic American Tankers’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. Nordic American Tankers’s payout ratio is 971.43%.

About Nordic American Tankers

Nordic American Tankers Limited is a Bermuda-based shipping company specializing in the ownership and operation of Suezmax crude oil tankers. The company’s fleet is employed on the spot and period charter markets, transporting crude oil across major global trade routes. By focusing on commercially flexible employment strategies, Nordic American Tankers seeks to optimize vessel utilization and generate stable income for shareholders.

Founded in 1995 and headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda, Nordic American Tankers maintains technical and commercial management arrangements through established ship-management partners.