Stolt-Nielsen’s shares dropped this morning after Norne Securities cut its recommendation to “hold” from “buy”.
The stock fell as much as 5% to NOK398 ($37) on Oslo Stock Exchange during early trading on Wednesday.
The Norwegian broker has retained a “buy” recommendation for four years but now says it “might be a good time to take a breather following the impressive rally”.
Stolt-Nielsen’s shares have soared over 400% since March 2020.
Even though the Norwegian broker raises the target price to NOK 470 per share, it finds it “difficult to find arguments for more substantial upside”.
“We believe the company has reached the phase of optimism towards staying at the top rather than the further growth,” analyst Mindaugas Cekanavicius said in a note.
Stolt-Nielsen delivered solid figures for the fourth quarter and Norne expects the company to propose a dividend per share of $1.25, according to Cekanavicius.
The closure of both the Panama and Suez canals has added further tonne-miles to the tanker segment and although creating challenges from a logistics perspective, this should not have a significant impact for the supply chains, according to Norne.
“Together with a firm product tanker market, the low orderbook is said to provide a good foundation for the favourable chemical tanker markets to continue for the foreseeable future,” Cekanavicius said.
The downgrade comes just days after Stolt-Nielsen upped its stake in rival Odfjell, sparking fresh merger talk between the Norwegian companies.
