Flex LNG has now stocked up 1m of its shares after running a buy-back programme as the LNG carrier owner sees shares rally.
The John Fredriksen-backed company, trading in both New York and Oslo, now owns 1.8% of its own shares — or 980,000 — after dipping into the market on four days last week for 80,000 shares.
It bought back 25,000 shares on Tuesday at a weighted average of NOK 124.74 ($13.99) and then the same amount last Wednesday at a weighted average of NOK 129.37.
The next day it repurchased 15,457 shares for an average of NOK 129.48 and on Friday it picked up 14,543 shares for an average of NOK 130.04.
The company launched its buy-back programme on 19 November, when shares were trading at just $7.45.
At the time, chief executive Oystein Kalleklev said Flex LNG was trading at 45% of book value, or roughly $16.56.
On the company's third-quarter earnings call on Tuesday, Kalleklev said Flex LNG's net asset value was higher than its book value at more than $20 per share, following the delivery of the 174,000-cbm Flex Vigilant (built 2021) in May.
Since the buy-back programme began, Flex LNG's shares have jumped to more than $15, reaching $15.05 at lunchtime on Monday in New York, while closing at NOK 135 in Oslo.
During the period, the price threshold for repurchases authorised by the company had steadily risen from $10 to $15 last quarter.
The company has spent $9.1m buying back shares so far, of an allowed $31m.
The quartet of recent purchases cost just over $112,000.
Flex LNG can buy back as many as 3.1m shares.
