Tankers' strange sell-off continues, this time with International Seaways seeing a major shareholder whittle down some of its position.
Spanish investor Cobas Asset Management sold just over 750,000 shares in the New York-listed tanker owner, according to regulatory filings, bringing its stake to 2.9m shares and just below the 10% threshold.
Cobas had owned 3.6m shares, or 12.52%.
It remains International Seaways' second-largest shareholder, behind Cyrus Funds' 4m stake and ahead of Black Rock's 1.8m shares.
The move comes as tanker owners have failed to impress investors despite record-breaking earnings.
For Lois Zabrocky-led International Seaways, the company more than quadrupled its earnings year-over-year, reporting last Thursday a record $43.7m profit for the first quarter of 2020 versus $10.9m for the same period last year.
The company saw modest increases in its share prices, closing up $0.49 to $21.49 after earnings, rising further to $21.82 Friday and to $22.13 in midday trading Monday.
Competitors DHT Holdings and Euronav reported strong year-over-year results last Tuesday and Thursday, respectively, but saw share price drops.
For DHT, its profit jumped to $72.2m from $17.7m, but share slid from $7.50 to $6.83 and further to $6.55 Monday.
Euronav reported a 1,000% jump in profit, hitting $226m, but shares fell $0.30 to $10.03. They recovered Friday, jumping to $10.46, before falling Monday to $9.96.
Cobas' sale comes after Ardmore Shipping Corp's top shareholder, Russell Investments Group, sold off more than 2m shares and abdicated the top spot.
Ardmore, a product tanker owner, had reported both a strong first quarter and record second quarter fixtures, but saw share price declines similar to DHT and Euronav.
