Yahoo Finance Here's Why Investors Should Retain Golar LNG (GLNG) Stock Now
Golar LNG Limited GLNG is bolstered by a strong liquidity position and declining operating expenses. The shareholder-friendly approach is praiseworthy. The growing floating LNG or liquefied natural gas market is a huge tailwind for the company. However, elevated vessel expenses do not benefit the company’s bottom line.
Factors Favoring GLNG
Golar’s commitment to rewarding its shareholders through dividends and buybacks is commendable. In 2023, the company paid more than $168 million in dividends and share buybacks. In the first quarter of 2024, GLNG announced a dividend of 25 cents per share. By the end of the quarter, Golar bought back approximately 0.7 million shares, leaving 104 million shares outstanding.
GLNG’s total operating expenses of $47.99 million declined 19.8% year over year in the first quarter of 2024. A decrease in operating expenses bodes well for the company’s bottom line. Administrative expenses and project development expenses also plunged by 29.7% and 96% on a year-over-year basis.
Golar ended the first quarter of 2024 with a robust liquidity position, holding approximately $700 million in cash and cash equivalents and a net debt of $550 million. The company reported a current ratio of 1.49 at the end of the quarter, which is favorable as a current ratio above 1 indicates that the company has sufficient cash to meet its debt obligations.
GLNG is the only provider of FLNG services with the largest production capacity fleet. Golar offers gas resource owners a unique value proposition to monetize stranded, re-injected or flared gas reserves while maintaining ownership. The company pioneered the FLNG concept with Hilli and achieved the lowest CapEx per ton of liquefaction capacity.
Shares of Golarhave rallied 53.8% in the past year compared with its industry’s growth of 24.7% in the same period.
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Key Risks
Vessel operating expenses, accounting for 54% of the total operating expenses, rose by 39.2% year over year to $25.9 million in the first quarter of 2024. Voyage, charter hire and commission expenses increased by $1.53 million compared to the first quarter of 2023. This northward movement in expenses does not bode well for GLNG's bottom line.
GLNG’s share of contractual debt at the end of the first quarter of 2024 increased 5% to $1.21 billion.
Zacks Rank
Golarcurrently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Stocks to Consider
Some better-ranked stocks for investors’ consideration in the Zacks Transportation sector include SkyWest SKYW and Kirby Corporation KEX.
SkyWest currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and has an expected earnings growth rate of 787% for the current year.
SKYW has an impressive earnings surprise history. Its earnings outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters, delivering an average surprise of 128%. Shares of SkyWest have jumped 107.4% in the past year.
KEX sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.Kirby has an expected earnings growth rate of 42.5% for the current year.
The company has an encouraging track record with respect to the earnings surprise, having surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters. The average beat is 10.3%. Shares of Kirby have climbed 59% in the past year.
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