JPMorgan has upgraded Costamare Inc (NYSE: CMRE) shares from Neutral to an Overweight rating and lifted the target price from
$12 to $13 on the stock implying over 70 percent upside potentials. The firm believes the dividend cut from $0.29 to $0.10 has
removed the overhang hampering the stock movement.
Analyst Noah Parquette expects the company to generate stable cash flow in the current and next year with its focus on smaller
vessel classes. The management's move to reduce dividend rate could also free up cash flow to improve liquidity. Furthermore, the
analyst sees the need for cash requirement lower with the DRIP program and founding family's participation.
Although the dividend cut came in as a surprise, the brokerage admitted that the cut is sensible, improving the liquidity issue
in the medium term. The firm expects cash requirements to be only $3 million for dividend compared to $22 million previously.
Related Link: Costamare Cut Its Dividend
By 65% And Stock Fell 19% Tuesday
In a research note, the analyst stated, "The company also announced it refinanced $360 million of bullet payments that were due
in Q2 and Q3/2018. While there are still two smaller bullet payments in 2018, the fact that these refinancing were down well ahead
of the maturities gives us confidence that the remaining refinancing should be relatively routine."
JPMorgan boosted its estimates following changes in dividend and new financings.
At last check, Costamare was up 1.78 percent at $7.45 on the day.
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Latest Ratings for CMRE
Date |
Firm |
Action |
From |
To |
Oct 2016 |
JP Morgan |
Upgrades |
Neutral |
Overweight |
Oct 2016 |
Stifel Nicolaus |
Downgrades |
Hold |
Sell |
Oct 2016 |
Barclays |
Maintains |
|
Equal-weight |
View More Analyst Ratings for
CMRE
View the Latest Analyst Ratings
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