Dorian LPG has been raised to “buy” by Fearnley Securities.
“Considering a sound outlook for the second half and 2025 coupled with strong distributions, we upgrade Dorian to Buy,” analyst Fredrik Dybwad said in a note on Friday.
The share target price was lifted to $48 from $34.
Shares of the New York-listed VLGC owner closed at $39.51 on Thursday.
The company will report second-quarter results before the market opens on 1 August.
Fearnleys estimates Ebitda to come in at $73m, excluding share-based compensation.
Earlier this week, Dorian decided to hand $42.6m in cash to shareholders.
“Dorian continues to perform well commercially as the company declared another $1/share dividend for second quarter (10% annualised yield) — their 10th consecutive quarterly dividend and the 8th consecutive DPS of $1,” Dybwad said.
The $1 irregular dividend will be paid out on 21 August.
According to Fearnleys, Dorian is deservedly priced at a premium to net asset value at 1.06 times due to the strong shareholder distributions.
The broker sees spot activity picking up after a slow start to summer.
“While spot rates have been softish on the back of subdued spot activity thus far this summer, activity is seemingly slowly picking up pace again with a few cargoes hitting the market.”
With an outlook for increased cargo activity in the coming months, Dybwad believe rates “are hovering near a bottom”.
