Scorpio Tankers (NYSE:STNG) Shares Up 7.8% – Time to Buy?

Scorpio Tankers Inc. (NYSE:STNG)’s share price shot up 7.8% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $59.33 and last traded at $59.19. 467,165 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 62% from the average session volume of 1,228,631 shares. The stock had previously closed at $54.93.

Analyst Ratings Changes

STNG has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Evercore ISI set a $80.00 target price on Scorpio Tankers and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 3rd. Moffett Nathanson raised Scorpio Tankers to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday. B. Riley restated a “buy” rating and issued a $80.00 price objective (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Scorpio Tankers in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. BTIG Research reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $75.00 target price on shares of Scorpio Tankers in a research note on Monday. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Scorpio Tankers in a report on Monday, December 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $70.17.

Scorpio Tankers Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 4.81, a quick ratio of 4.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.14 and a beta of -0.27. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $56.03 and a 200-day moving average price of $52.90.

Scorpio Tankers (NYSE:STNG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The shipping company reported $1.49 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.39 by $0.10. Scorpio Tankers had a return on equity of 7.42% and a net margin of 32.01%.The business had revenue of $232.92 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $228.09 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.75 EPS. Scorpio Tankers’s quarterly revenue was down 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Scorpio Tankers Inc. will post 5.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Scorpio Tankers Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 5th. Investors of record on Friday, November 14th were given a dividend of $0.42 per share. This is an increase from Scorpio Tankers’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 14th. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.8%. Scorpio Tankers’s dividend payout ratio is 28.43%.

Institutional Trading of Scorpio Tankers

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of STNG. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in Scorpio Tankers by 136.4% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 853,712 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $43,394,000 after acquiring an additional 492,584 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of Scorpio Tankers by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 25,466 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $1,317,000 after purchasing an additional 798 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Scorpio Tankers in the third quarter valued at $95,000. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Scorpio Tankers in the third quarter valued at $266,000. Finally, PharVision Advisers LLC bought a new position in shares of Scorpio Tankers in the third quarter valued at about $319,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 54.64% of the company’s stock.

About Scorpio Tankers

Scorpio Tankers Inc (NYSE: STNG) is an independent provider of marine transportation services, specializing in the carriage of refined petroleum products. The company’s core operations focus on moving clean petroleum cargoes—such as gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and naphtha—on a global scale. By catering to both spot and time charter markets, Scorpio Tankers enables energy companies, refiners and traders to manage their supply chains with flexibility and reliability.

The company’s fleet is composed of modern, eco-designed product tankers, including medium range (MR) and long range (LR) vessels.