AP Moller-Maersk chief executive Soren Skou has said the company has more work to do despite being upgraded by giant US investment bank Goldman Sachs this week.
The bank raised its recommendation from neutral to buy, with the target price hiked from DKK 10,000 ($1,580) to DKK 12,700.
The shares were trading at DKK 10,270, up nearly 2%, in Copenhagen on Thursday. The stock has doubled since March despite the Covid-19 pandemic hitting box demand.
Goldman Sachs analyst Patrick Creuset said the group had successfully executed its 2016 strategy to spin off energy businesses and focus on boxships and terminals.
The investment bank expects a very strong second six months for Maersk, with big dividends going to shareholders.
"I am happy with the development, but not satisfied yet," Skou told the Borsen daily.
He said the containership company can be happy with the progress it has made.
Skou added: "Because we have not exactly had a tailwind. We have had to make a turnaround — we lost money in 2016 — at the same time as we had to transform the conglomerate and make a big digital transformation.
Progress despite turmoil
"Along the way, we have had cyber attacks, trade wars, rising fuel prices and now the coronavirus. That is why I also think we can be happy with the fairly constant progress we have shown."
Capacity management through cancelled voyages has boosted freight rates this year, leading Maersk to forecast a profit for 2020 up to $1.5bn bigger than it previously expected.
The company expects Ebitda this year to be between $6bn and $7bn, before restructuring and integration costs.
That is significantly up on the forecast of $5.5bn when the earnings guidance was suspended on 20 March due to Covid-19 uncertainty.
The liner operator reported higher-than-expected Ebitda of $1.7bn in the three months to the end of June.
However, Skou said he is only completely satisfied when the group delivers a return on invested capital of 7.5%.
