StealthGas opened the year back in the black with a modest profit and a plan to make good on its promises to buy back shares.
The Harry Vafias-led gas carrier owner posted a $2m profit for the first three months of 2019, while extending the charters of seven ships and launching a $10m buyback plan Thursday.
"With our stock trading at a large discount to our net asset value, our board has taken the decision to initiate a share buyback program of up to $10 million," chairman Michael Jolliffe said.
"This is a means to support our stock as well as our shareholders for their commitment to StealthGas."
In late trading, the company's shares were up nearly 4%, or $0.12, to $3.27.
In late March, Jefferies analyst Randy Giveans reported that the company told investors it planned on using cash — $74.8m of which it reported to have on hand right now — to either buy back shares, delever or buy some secondhand ships. Then, Giveans said the company was trading at half its net asset value.
The company's first quarter earnings — good for $0.05 per share — beat Wall Street expectations of a $0.01 loss thanks to operation utilization of 98.8%.
The performance was a year over year improvement of the $5.8m loss from the same period last year.
The charter extensions included 10 more years for the 3,500-cbm Eco Corsair (built 2014) for 10 years and another two for the 6,300-cbm Gas Flawless (built 2007).
The 7,500-cbm Gas Esco (built 2012), the 7,500-cbm Gas Husky built 2012), the 5,000-cbm Gas Inspiration (built 2006) and the 7,200-cbm Eco Dominator (built 2016) received six month extensions while the 22,000-cbm Eco Freeze (built 2018) there months.
The company said the extensions cover 71% of the anticipated voyage days for the fleet for the rest of the year and 29% of 2020.
