Scorpio Tankers stocks are up more than 8% in midday trading Thursday after getting the thumbs up from analysts this week.
Wednesday, Morgan Stanley's Fotis Giannakoulis bumped the Emanuele Lauro-led shipowners price target up from $25 to $27.
Early Thursday morning, Liam Burke at B Riley FBR added Scorpio Tankers to its Alpha Generator list.
"As the operator of one of the world's largest publicly traded product tanker fleets, STNG should, we believe, benefit from the underlying strength in the product tanker markets driven by the declining pace of new shipbuilding and the increase in demand for distillates to meet The International Maritime Organization (IMO) 2020 standards," Burke wrote in his note.
Scorpio Tankers shares opened Thursday at $21.75. Shares rose to as high as $23.44 throughout the morning and early afternoon.
Burke said the company's utilization rates should remain high to take advantage of increasing TCEs.
"We think there is potential upside to our numbers based on the improving health of the product tanker markets," he wrote.
Scorpio is expected to report first quarter earnings 23 April, per Morgan Stanley.
