Teekay Tankers (NYSE:TNK) Reaches New 52-Week High Following Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Teekay Tankers Ltd. (NYSE:TNK) hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday after Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on the stock from $70.00 to $76.00. Jefferies Financial Group currently has a buy rating on the stock. Teekay Tankers traded as high as $69.40 and last traded at $67.32, with a volume of 96903 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $63.54.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on Teekay Tankers from $77.00 to $73.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 23rd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Teekay Tankers from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of Teekay Tankers from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $56.00 to $72.00 in a report on Friday, January 19th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Teekay Tankers by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,020,473 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $100,964,000 after acquiring an additional 54,886 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Teekay Tankers by 6.3% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 881,364 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $51,480,000 after purchasing an additional 52,476 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Teekay Tankers by 94.3% during the third quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 409,144 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $17,022,000 after purchasing an additional 198,613 shares during the period. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Teekay Tankers by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 300,892 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $15,036,000 after purchasing an additional 11,605 shares during the period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC grew its holdings in shares of Teekay Tankers by 485.2% in the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 298,492 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $17,435,000 after purchasing an additional 247,489 shares during the last quarter. 52.67% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Teekay Tankers Stock Up 9.0 %

The company’s 50 day moving average is $57.43 and its 200 day moving average is $54.82. The company has a market cap of $2.37 billion, a PE ratio of 4.66, a P/E/G ratio of 1.41 and a beta of -0.27. The company has a current ratio of 4.40, a quick ratio of 4.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08.

Teekay Tankers (NYSE:TNK) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The shipping company reported $2.87 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.68 by ($0.81). Teekay Tankers had a return on equity of 36.16% and a net margin of 37.65%. The company had revenue of $194.46 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $219.93 million. As a group, analysts predict that Teekay Tankers Ltd. will post 14.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Teekay Tankers Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 4th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 1st. Teekay Tankers’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.73%.

About Teekay Tankers

Teekay Tankers Ltd. provides crude oil and other marine transportation services to oil industries in Bermuda and internationally. The company offers voyage and time charter services; offshore ship-to-ship transfer services of commodities primarily crude oil and refined oil products; and tanker commercial and technical management services.