Global Ship Lease (NYSE:GSL) Upgraded to “Strong-Buy” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Global Ship Lease (NYSE:GSL) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report report published on Monday.

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group restated a buy rating and set a $25.00 target price on shares of Global Ship Lease in a research note on Monday, March 4th.

Global Ship Lease Price Performance

GSL stock opened at $21.39 on Monday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $20.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $19.44. The stock has a market cap of $752.71 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.50. Global Ship Lease has a fifty-two week low of $16.80 and a fifty-two week high of $21.94. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52.

Global Ship Lease (NYSE:GSL) last posted its earnings results on Monday, March 4th. The shipping company reported $2.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.34 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $178.89 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $171.54 million. Global Ship Lease had a return on equity of 29.87% and a net margin of 45.12%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.14 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Global Ship Lease will post 9.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Global Ship Lease Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were paid a $0.375 dividend. This represents a $1.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. Global Ship Lease’s dividend payout ratio is currently 18.01%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Global Ship Lease

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GSL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Global Ship Lease by 713.8% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 129,200 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $3,681,000 after purchasing an additional 113,324 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates increased its holdings in shares of Global Ship Lease by 381.3% in the first quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 62,993 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $1,795,000 after purchasing an additional 49,905 shares during the period. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Global Ship Lease by 29.6% in the first quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 23,890 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $681,000 after purchasing an additional 5,454 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Global Ship Lease by 260.0% in the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 3,600 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $103,000 after purchasing an additional 2,600 shares during the period. Finally, BlackRock Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Global Ship Lease by 14.3% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 25,081 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $715,000 after purchasing an additional 3,137 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 50.08% of the company’s stock.

Global Ship Lease Company Profile

Global Ship Lease, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in owning and chartering of containerships under fixed-rate charters to container shipping companies worldwide. As of March 11, 2024, it owned 68 mid-sized and smaller containerships, ranging from 2,207 to 11,040 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU), with an aggregate capacity of 375,406 TEU.