In a client briefing Nishant Mani brandedthe operator’s New York-quoted shares with an “outperform” rating and set aprice target of $24.00.

“We believe that Dorian offers investorsthe ability to leverage the fundamentally attractive LPG shipping space, with asignificant ‘baked-in’ growth component in an orderbook of 19 vesselsdelivering through and optionality to a higher rate environment,” he said.

The forecaster applauded what hedescribed as a “balanced chartering strategy” and “conservative balance sheetposition” that, in his opinion, will deliver “more attractive risk-adjustedreturns throughout the cycle”.

Mani acknowledged that the overall orderbookin Dorian’s core market has “grown considerably” in recent months and couldweigh on the VLGC segment in the long-term but argued that the sector willremain strong through 2015.

The analyst told investors the owner intends to fix approximately 33% of its newbuildings on time charters upon delivery in aneffort to provide revenue visibility and reduce market exposure, which suggests itwill still be in a position to capture upside if spot rates spike.

The researcher also pointed out thatfreight rates have topped $90,000 per day and said he expects the rally tocontinue in the near-term but believes daily levels will fall to $43,000 onaverage in 2015 and 2016, an estimate he described as a “base case” for thespot market.

Dorian LPG, which is led by chiefexecutive John Hadjipateras and trades under the symbol “LPG”, oversees 22VLGCs and one small, pressurized gas carrier. The total includes 19newbuildings that are due for delivery at various intervals over the next fewyears.

Earlier in the day the company said hullnumbers 2656 and 2657, which are under construction at Hyundai Heavy Industriesin South Korea, are scheduled to hit the water in July and September of thisyear, respectively.

Upon completion theformer, which will be named Comet, is due to commence a five-year charter with Shell.According to the announcement the latter, which will be calledthe Corsair, is still unfixed and will likely trade in the spot market.