The year-to-date rally of shipping stocks, coupled with the industry's positive outlook, provides an opportunity for companies to prove their worth to Wall Street.
Speaking on a Capital Link webinar on Tuesday, Evercore analyst Jonathan Chappell said shipping was headed for a period of "mid-cycle rates", giving currently listed companies the ability to show they are investible.
"Let's see these current equities and these current management teams that have managed these difficult cycles add some value," he said.
"[Let's] see them get appropriate valuations, see what they can do with their equity and build some investable stocks."
Chappell was joined on the webinar — entitled "Shipping Gets Renewed Attention on Wall Street" — by Clarksons Platou Securities' Omar Nokta and Jefferies' Randy Giveans.
The three suggested that shipping, battered by a decade-long low cycle, is improving thanks to a confluence of factors, including optimism around the Covid-19 vaccine driving worldwide economic growth and a search for value stocks boosted by a low orderbook.
Nokta said the upcoming cycle, which is not expected to reach the highs seen in the back half of the first decade of the 2000s, would push investors to focus on management.
"[It's] a good enough market where good companies can make good profits," he said.
"It's really about management and execution and strategy. That's probably an exciting thing."
Nokta said shipping stocks had been on a "tear" over the past several weeks, while Giveans said the 31 companies under his coverage are up an average of 34% since the new year.
Among the larger New York-traded companies, Star Bulk shares shot up from $8.86 on 4 January to $14.15 around lunchtime on Tuesday, while Golar LNG jumped from $9.98 to $11.97 over the same period.
Boxship owner Costamare saw its shares rise from $8.22 to $9.83 year-to-date as rates recovered in that sector, while Euronav, despite low tanker rates, rose from $8.48 to $9.53.
Giveans said investors are searching for ways to capitalise on the economic recovery after the pandemic and are looking to the end of 2021 and even into 2022 for opportunities.
"The fundamentals are certainly in place for a couple of good years at least here in the early 2020s," Giveans said, referencing economic growth forecasts driving demand, coupled with fewer ships coming into the global fleet in the years ahead due to decarbonisation efforts.
He said shipping could be in for a good three, five or potentially even nine years.
None of the three analysts suggested that there was any interest in further public listings, after Zim debuted on the New York Stock Exchange on 28 January.
The Israeli liner company pitched itself as an "asset-light" company, chartering in 69 ships and owning just one, allowing it to tell what Giveans called a "differentiated story ... a unique story".
"I think you still want and need that," he said.
"Again, it's hard for just a basic dry bulk company to go public basically at [net asset value] if you can get these other companies below [net asset value]."
