Ton Mile Trader

Jonathan Chappell - Managing Director of Research at Evercore Partners - has released his 2012 Tanker Market Outlook. 

 Top Pick and Conviction BUY is TNK - with STNG, CPLP, DHT and VLCCF also receiving the much sought OVERWEIGHT ratings from Mr Chappell.

"...That said, we believe the risk/reward outlook is now favorable for several tanker stocks as we overlay our rate forecasts with the balance sheets, fleet employment, and dividend distribution capacity of the stocks in our coverage universe. Indeed, although we believe it is too early to escalate the risk profile of a tanker stock portfolio given the aforementioned market challenges, we believe the stocks of those companies with extensive time-charter coverage and limited-to-no debt/cash flow concerns through the first several quarters of this year, can provide investors with upside market exposure if rates turn earlier than expected, while still paying said investors to wait for the more likely 2013 recovery through a robust dividend yield supported by fixed cash flows."
NAT gets an Equalweight - and OSG and FRO were rated UNDERWEIGHT.