← All companies ← NAMM Manual NBTX → ← MATX Marine Shipping NCLH →

NAT, Nordic American Tankers Limited

Marine Shipping capital-intensive Distress / turnaroundCapital build-outCyclical

Revenue is Spot Charter (73%) and Time Charter (27%).

Latest annual: FY2025 20-F · US listing is the ordinary share

NAT · Nordic American Tankers Limited

The business

What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.

Revenue · FY2025

$292M

−16.6% YoY · −4% 5-yr CAGR

Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average

Revenue $292M 5-yr avg $313M

Gross margin 62% 5-yr avg 55%

Operating margin 15.9% 5-yr avg 1.5%

ROIC 6% 5-yr avg 5%

Owner-earnings margin −39% 5-yr avg −1%

Free cash flow margin −39% 5-yr avg −1%

The business in brief

read the 10-K →

What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.

What it is: A capital-intensive business, run on heavy physical assets that must be kept working and earn a return above what they cost to maintain.
Situation: Distress / turnaround. Thin interest coverage, or operating cash burned against real debt, across the record. The balance sheet carries this situation; the debt schedule sets the clock. Capital build-out. Capital spending has surged to 46% of sales, today's earnings are charged less depreciation than tomorrow's will be. Cyclical. Margins collapse and recover repeatedly across the record; a single year, good or bad, misstates the through-cycle earning power.
What moves the needle: Gross margin has run about 55% and operating margin about 12% through the cycle, a wide spread between price and the cost of what it sells — whether that advantage is durable pricing power or a margin that can erode is the question the record is for. The margin is cyclical, swinging between −76% and 33% over the years, so the through-cycle figure carries more than any single year — and the balance sheet at the trough more than the peak. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on customer concentration, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
Is it a good business?: Return on capital has rarely cleared the cost of capital (median 5%, above 15% in 1 of 8 years). Owner earnings, the cash-based check, have been thin too. The cycle and the balance sheet decide this one; the worst year tells more than the median, and the rest is in the 10-K.

Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.

Where the money comes from

read the 20-F →

Spot Charter is 73% of revenue, with Time Charter the other meaningful line at 27%.

Revenue by product line, FY2025

Spot Charter73%$212M
Time Charter27%$80M

From the segment footnote of the company's own 20-F. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of segment operating profit, before unallocated corporate costs.

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2016–2025

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left

2016’16	2017’17	2018’18	2019’19	2020’20	2021’21	2022’22	2023’23	2024’24	2025’25	TTMTTMDec 2025
											Income statement
$357M	$297M	$289M	$317M	$355M	$191M	$339M	$392M	$350M	$292M	$292M	RevenueRevenue
65%	52%	43%	55%	66%	33%	50%	67%	64%	62%	62%	Gross marginGross mgn
$53M	($176M)	($39M)	$32M	$81M	($144M)	$42M	$128M	$77M	$46M	$46M	Operating incomeOp. inc.
14.9%	−59.1%	−13.4%	10.1%	22.9%	−75.6%	12.3%	32.7%	22.1%	15.9%	15.9%	Operating marginOp. mgn
($4M)	($205M)	($95M)	($10M)	$50M	($171M)	$15M	$99M	$47M	$12M	$12M	Net incomeNet inc.
—	—	—	—	0%	—	0%	0%	-0%	0%	0%	Effective tax rateTax rate
											Cash flow & returns
$128M	$32M	($16M)	$53M	$111M	($44M)	$24M	$139M	$128M	$20M	$20M	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$91M	$101M	$61M	$64M	$68M	$68M	$50M	$51M	$56M	$58M	$58M	DepreciationDeprec.
$41M	$136M	$19M	($755K)	($7M)	$59M	($41M)	($11M)	$25M	($50M)	($50M)	Working capital & otherWC & other
$138M	$38M	$5M	$3M	$7M	$4M	$5M	$74M	$870K	$134M	$134M	CapexCapex
38.7%	12.6%	1.7%	0.8%	1.9%	2.0%	1.5%	18.8%	0.2%	46.1%	46.1%	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
($10M)	($6M)	($21M)	$50M	$104M	($48M)	$19M	$66M	$127M	($115M)	($115M)	Owner earningsOwner earn.
−2.9%	−2.0%	−7.2%	15.9%	29.4%	−25.3%	5.6%	16.8%	36.4%	−39.3%	−39.3%	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
($10M)	($6M)	($21M)	$50M	$104M	($48M)	$19M	$66M	$127M	($115M)	($115M)	Free cash flowFCF
−2.9%	−2.0%	−7.2%	15.9%	29.4%	−25.3%	5.6%	16.8%	36.4%	−39.3%	−39.3%	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
$126M	$54M	$10M	$14M	$67M	$10M	$23M	$90M	$88M	$85M	$85M	Dividends paidDiv. paid
—	—	—	—	—	—	$0	$0	$4M	$0	—	BuybacksBuybacks
—	-13%	-3%	—	9%	-15%	5%	16%	10%	6%	6%	ROICROIC
-1%	-29%	-16%	-2%	8%	-34%	3%	18%	9%	3%	3%	Return on equityROE
−15%	−36%	−17%	−4%	−3%	−36%	−1%	2%	−8%	−16%	−16%	Retained to equityRetained/eq
											Balance sheet
$82M	$58M	$49M	$49M	$58M	$35M	$60M	$31M	$39M	$46M	$46M	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
—	—	—	—	—	$9M	$20M	$26M	$16M	$19M	$19M	ReceivablesReceiv.
$21M	$23M	$20M	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	$20M	InventoryInvent.
$4M	$3M	$4M	$8M	$4M	$7M	$7M	$3M	$4M	$3M	$3M	Accounts payablePayables
$17M	$20M	$17M	—	—	$3M	$14M	$23M	$12M	$17M	$37M	Operating working capitalOper. WC
$164M	$127M	$113M	$129M	$100M	$107M	$143M	$109M	$99M	$151M	$151M	Current assetsCur. assets
$22M	$25M	$36M	$59M	$40M	$68M	$72M	$70M	$60M	$67M	$67M	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
7.6×	5.0×	3.1×	2.2×	2.5×	1.6×	2.0×	1.5×	1.7×	2.2×	2.2×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
$19M	$0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	$0	GoodwillGoodwill
$1.3B	$1.1B	$1.1B	$1.0B	$974M	$851M	$880M	$879M	$818M	$902M	$902M	Total assetsAssets
$443M	$389M	$437M	$399M	$357M	$321M	$306M	$302M	$270M	$424M	$424M	Total debtDebt
$361M	$330M	$387M	$350M	$299M	$286M	$246M	$271M	$231M	$378M	$378M	Net debt / (cash)Net debt
4.8×	-8.6×	-1.1×	0.8×	2.6×	-5.5×	1.5×	4.2×	2.5×	1.3×	1.5×	Interest coverageInt. cov.
$871M	$711M	$602M	$595M	$599M	$498M	$540M	$538M	$509M	$446M	$446M	Shareholders’ equityEquity
											Per share
92.5M	104M	142M	143M	149M	163M	202M	209M	210M	212M	212M	Shares out (diluted)Shares
$3.86	$2.86	$2.04	$2.22	$2.38	$1.18	$1.68	$1.88	$1.67	$1.38	$1.38	Revenue / shareRev/sh
$-0.05	$-1.97	$-0.67	$-0.07	$0.34	$-1.05	$0.07	$0.47	$0.22	$0.06	$0.06	EPS (diluted)EPS
$-0.11	$-0.06	$-0.15	$0.35	$0.70	$-0.30	$0.09	$0.32	$0.61	$-0.54	$-0.54	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$-0.11	$-0.06	$-0.15	$0.35	$0.70	$-0.30	$0.09	$0.32	$0.61	$-0.54	$-0.54	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$1.36	$0.52	$0.07	$0.10	$0.45	$0.06	$0.11	$0.43	$0.42	$0.40	$0.40	Dividends / shareDiv/sh
$1.49	$0.36	$0.03	$0.02	$0.05	$0.02	$0.03	$0.35	$0.00	$0.63	$0.63	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$9.41	$6.85	$4.24	$4.18	$4.01	$3.07	$2.67	$2.58	$2.42	$2.10	$2.10	Book value / shareBVPS

Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded

	9-yr	5-yr
Revenue / share	−10.8%/yr	−10.3%/yr
EPS	—	−29.6%/yr
Dividends / share	−12.7%/yr	−2.3%/yr
Capital spending / share	−9.1%/yr	+69.2%/yr
Book value / share	−15.3%/yr	−12.1%/yr

The record, charted

FY2016–2025

Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked.

Share count

212Mpeak FY2025

ROIC

6%low FY2021

Gross margin

62%low FY2021

Net debt ÷ owner earnings

1.8×peak FY2022

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

The accountant's number, and the cash an owner can take; the gap is the tell.

($115M)owner earningsvs.$12Mnet incomelow FY2025

Where the cash went

ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetained

Each year's operating cash, by what management did with it: the mix, and how it drifts.

FY2016FY2025

Owner-earnings bridge

FY2021–FY2025cash-flow statement, SEC EDGAR →

Net income is the accountant's number; owner earnings is the cash an owner could take out. The walk between them, off the cash-flow statement, and whether the gap is widening or holding.

In fiscal 2025 the business reported $12M of profit but ($115M) of owner earnings: $127M less than the profit line, taken out by capital spending and the timing of cash.

	FY2025	FY2024	FY2023	FY2022	FY2021
Reported net income	$12M	$47M	$99M	$15M	($171M)
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back	+$58M	+$56M	+$51M	+$50M	+$68M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	−$50M	+$25M	−$11M	−$41M	+$59M
Cash from operations	$20M	$128M	$139M	$24M	($44M)
Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow	−$134M	−$870K	−$74M	−$5M	−$4M
Owner earnings	($115M)	$127M	$66M	$19M	($48M)
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	-39%	36%	17%	6%	-25%

Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the capital it must spend to hold its position .

Much of fiscal 2025's profit didn't arrive as operating cash; it sits in “working capital & other” above. That can be a real inventory or timing swing, or profit that doesn't run through operating cash at all: a heavy tax year, equity-method earnings, or investment income booked through investing. For a year like this, owner earnings understates the cash earned; the full cash-flow statement carries the rest.

Maintenance capex is estimated as depreciation where a growing business invests above it; free cash flow is the figure the scorecard's free-cash margin reads.

III

Quality & stewardship

Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.

Owner’s Scorecard

FY2025 20-F · source on SEC EDGAR →

Will it survive?

Can it pay its interest? 1.5×

Thin

Operating income $46M ÷ interest expense $30M

What this means
Operating profit covers interest, but with little room. A bad year, a refinancing at higher rates, or a revenue wobble closes the gap fast.
How heavy is the debt, net of cash? $378M · 8.2× operating profit

Heavy net debt

Cash $46M − debt $424M

What this means
Netting $46M of cash and short-term investments against $424M of debt leaves $378M owed, about 8.2× a year's operating profit (9.2× on the gross debt, before the cash). Net debt is the leverage figure that matters: the cash is already set against the debt. Strategic or illiquid investments aren't counted here.
How long is cash tied up? 83d

Long (60+ days)

DSO 24 + DIO 68 − DPO 8 days

What this means
Days cash is tied up between paying suppliers and collecting from customers. Lower is better; a long cycle means growth itself eats cash.

Is it a good business?

Return on invested capital 5%

Below average through the cycle

8-yr median, range -15%–16%; 6% latest = NOPAT $46M ÷ invested capital $824M

Industry peers: median 4%

What this means
The rate the business earns on the money tied up in it, Buffett's north star, because over time a stock tracks the ROIC beneath it. Above ~15% sustained hints at a moat; a return below the cost of capital (~8%) erodes value as a business grows rather than building it — the test Buffett weighs most. The headline is the median of the last 8 years (it ran 6% most recently), so one peak or trough year doesn't set the verdict. Asset-light businesses (R&D expensed, little capital) read artificially high, pair this with Owner Earnings.
Owner-earnings margin -2%

Consumes cash through the cycle

10-yr median margin, range -39%–36%; latest ($115M) = operating cash $20M − maintenance capex $134M

Industry peers: median 12%

What this means
What an owner could take out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position — Buffett's owner earnings. That's -39% of revenue this year, a -2% median across 10 years.
Are earnings backed by cash? 1.62×

Cash-backed

Cash from ops $20M ÷ net income $12M

What this means
How much of reported profit showed up as operating cash. Above 1× is reassuring; well below suggests earnings lean on accruals. One year is noisy, growth and working-capital swings distort it, and this is operating cash, not free cash. Watch the multi-year trend.

How is the cash used?

Where do the earnings go? —

No surplus to allocate

What this means
The business didn't generate positive Owner Earnings this year, so any distributions came from the balance sheet or borrowing, not from operations.
Investing or harvesting? 2.33×

Expanding

Capex $134M ÷ depreciation $58M

What this means
Descriptive, not a grade. Above ~1× means investing faster than assets wear out (growth, or, sustained for years, today's earnings carrying less depreciation than tomorrow's will). Below means spending less than it's wearing out (efficiency, or a melting asset base). The ratio won't tell you which; the filings will.

Graham’s defensive tests · 2 of 5 met

Graham’s numerical criteria for the defensive investor (The Intelligent Investor, ch. 14), run on the filings. A floor of safety, not a buy signal; many fine modern businesses fail his strictest liquidity rules by design.

Adequate size Miss

Revenue ≥ $2B · $292M

What this means
Big enough to weather a storm. Graham's 1972 floor was ~$100M of sales (≈ $700M today); we use a $2B revenue line as a conservative modern stand-in.
Strong liquidity Pass

Current ratio ≥ 2× · 2.24×

What this means
Current assets at least twice current liabilities, near-term bills covered without touching the business. Strict by design: many cash-rich modern firms run leaner and miss it, holding their cushion in longer-dated securities.
Conservative debt Miss

Debt ≤ working capital · $424M vs $83M WC

What this means
Graham's rule that borrowings not exceed net current assets. Capital-heavy and buyback-heavy firms routinely fail it, read it next to interest coverage, not alone.
Earnings stability Miss

A profit every year (10-yr record) · 5 loss years

What this means
Graham wanted earnings in each of the past ten years, the stability a defensive owner leans on.
Dividend record Pass

Uninterrupted dividends · paid every year (10)

What this means
An unbroken dividend was Graham's mark of durability. He wanted twenty years; the filings show about ten, and a single suspension breaks the streak. Non-payers, many fine modern compounders, fall outside his defensive net by design.
Earnings growth —

Earnings +33% over the record · —

What this means
Earnings were negative early in the record, a growth rate isn't meaningful.
Moderate price —

P/E ≤ 15 and P/E × P/B ≤ 22.5 · decided by the price

What this means
Graham's valuation gate, the wall he kept between a sound business and a sound investment. Three-year average earnings are $0.25/share (latest year $0.06), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $2.10/share. Enter a price in “What the price implies” just below for the P/E, P/B, and whether it clears. But this is the rule Buffett outgrew: there's no hard P/E law, and a wonderful business can deserve a far richer multiple if the thesis holds, treat it as the bargain-hunter's floor, not a verdict on the price.

Durability & moat, 2016–2025

Whether the record’s returns held, and what the capital reinvested earned.

Profitable years 5 of 10

What this means
Lost money in 5 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.
Return on capital ≥ 15% 1 of 10 yrs

What this means
A moat shows up as a high return on invested capital that holds year after year, not one good vintage.
Operating margin −19% → 24% (3-yr avg ends)

What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin widened — about −19% early to 24% lately, median 12% — pricing power intact or improving.
Reinvestment, incremental ROIC returns capital

What this means
The capital base barely grew: this business returns cash through dividends and buybacks rather than reinvesting. Judge it on the cash returned, not on compounding.
Worst year 2021 · −75.6% op. margin

What this means
Operations went underwater in 2021, understand why before trusting the good years.
Dividend record paid

What this means
Paid a dividend in 10 of the years on record.

Does AI threaten the moat?

Low contestability

The moat is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded, the kind AI cuts costs within but does not contest.

AI is unlikely to contest a moat that is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded; here it reads more as a cost tool than a threat.

Read from the filing's own risk factors, paired with the industry's structure under its SIC code; the durability is read above, the price below.

All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.

Current Position

as of fiscal year-end, Dec 31, 2025

Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.

Current assets$151M

Cash & short-term investments$46M
Receivables$19M
Inventory$20M
Other current assets$66M

Current liabilities$67M

Debt due within a year$35M
Accounts payable$3M
Other current liabilities$29M

Current ratio2.24×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio1.94×stricter: inventory excluded

Cash ratio0.68×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capital$83Mthe cushion left after near-term bills

Debt due this year vs. cash$35M due · $46M cash covered by cash on hand, no refinancing forced · both figures from the Dec 31, 2025 balance sheet

Deeper floors

Tangible book value$446Mequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles

Net current asset value($265M)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities

Debt incl. operating leases$424Mno operating-lease liability tagged this quarter, so debt alone

Deferred revenue$4Mcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float

From the company's latest filing.

How the cash was used, 2016–2025

Over the record, the business generated $574M of operating cash; how management split it reads as a cash returner, paying most of what it earns straight back to owners.

Reinvested$408M · 71%
Dividends$566M · 99%
Buybacks$4M · 1%

Returned to owners$569M
342% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $566M as dividends and $4M as buybacks.
Source of funding−$403M
Reinvestment and shareholder returns ran $403M beyond the operating cash the business generated, so the gap was financed off the balance sheet.
Average price paid for buybacks—
Buybacks ran $4M over the span, but the filings don't tag the share count needed to deduce the average price paid.
Net change in share count128.8%
The diluted count rose from 93M to 212M: issuance (stock pay, deals) outran any buybacks, so owners were diluted on net.
Dividend record$0.40/sh
Paid in 10 of the years on record, the per-share dividend shrinking about 13% a year. It was cut at least once along the way.

Buybacks are gross of stock issued to staff; the share-count line above is the net of that, the figure that decides whether owners gained. The average price paid blends a year of purchases (and any accelerated repurchase), so it is close, not exact. The record of where the cash went and on what terms.

Inverting the record

Invert: instead of why Nordic American Tankers Limited is a good business, the question is what would make owning it a mistake, and whether those marks are in the record. Disconfirming tests across 2016–2025.

1 of the 4 tests turned up something to look into; the other 3 came back clean.

Look hereDid the share count rise anyway?128.8%
Diluted shares grew 128.8% over 2016–2025, even as the company spent $4M on buybacks. The repurchases were outrun by issuance — to staff, in a raise, or in a deal — and the filing says which; owners' slice still shrank. Read the buyback line beside this one, not on its own.

And these came back clean

Is it less profitable than it was?
Did debt outgrow the business?
Did receivables and inventory outpace sales?

Each test is read from the filings and is noisy alone; a flag can mark a cyclical trough or a year of heavy investment as easily as a problem. The filing says which.

What an owner would ask, FY2025

read the 10-K →

How much of the revenue rides on one buyer?
≈$60M · 21% of revenue on the largest customers (TTM)
“Revenues from two customers amounted to 18.14 %, from two customer 22.5 % and from two customer 20.5 % of the Company consolidated revenues for the twelve months ended December 31, 2025, 2024 and 2023, respectively.”verify →

The questions the record and the charts do not answer on their own; each carries the figure and the place to look.

Peers, Marine Shipping

The same industry, side by side on owner economics. Each figure is a through-cycle median, so a peak or trough year can’t distort it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each against.

Company	Revenue	Gross margin	Op. margin	ROIC	Owner earn. margin
KEXKirby	$3.4B	—	7.7%	4%	10%
MATXMatson	$3.3B	96%	11.4%	11%	12%
TDWTidewater Inc.	$1.4B	—	-12.5%	-6%	3%
INSWInternational Seaways Inc. Common Stock	$843M	—	12.3%	3%	33%
PANLPangaea Logistics Solutions Ltd.	$632M	—	7.7%	10%	10%
LPGDorian LPG Ltd.	$482M	—	35.2%	7%	38%
GNKGenco Shipping & Trading Limited	$342M	—	-1.1%	-0%	31%
NATNordic American Tankers Limited	$292M	59%	13.6%	5%	2%
Group median	—	—	9.6%	5%	11%

The price

What a price has to assume.

What the price implies

reverse-DCF

Enter the US price, in dollars: the NYSE/Nasdaq quote you hold. Nordic American Tankers Limited's US listing is the ordinary share itself. The record tables elsewhere on this page remain as filed.

Type today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what Nordic American Tankers Limited has delivered.

Nordic American Tankers Limited’s latest year shows negative owner earnings, a cyclical trough. So the tool opens on the through-cycle base, the cash it would earn at rest; clear the toggle below to read the latest year exactly as reported.

Today’s price $

Through the cycle, Nordic American Tankers Limited earns about $5M on its 1.8% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s −39.3% margin runs below that; the reported figure may understate a lean year. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year.

Base Normalize · through-cycle ($5M) Net of stock comp

—

The assumptions Required return 9% Years of high growth 10 Terminal growth 2.5%

9.0% = the 4.55% 10-year Treasury (Jul 15, 2026) + 4.45 points of equity premium. The rate you require is yours to set.

Enter a price above to run it.

Implied by the price—

Owner-earnings growth, delivered—

Owner-earnings yield—

P/E (3-yr earnings ’23–’25)—

P/B—

Graham’s price gate—

Graham capped the multiple at 15×; Buffett and Munger let that rule go: a wonderful business can deserve 50× if the thesis holds. The gate marks the bargain-hunter's floor.

Against a high-grade bond: Graham’s yardstick bond yield%

Prefilled with the 10-year Treasury (4.55%, as of Jul 15, 2026). Edit it for today’s exact figure, or a AAA corporate yield.

Graham measured a stock against the bond you could own instead, the heart of his margin of safety. Enter a price above to weigh the owner-earnings yield against this bond.

Owner earnings ($115M) on 212M shares outstanding, per the 20-F cover, as of 2025-12-31; net debt $378M. The base opens on the through-cycle figure (the latest year sits off the record’s own median, and Graham’s averaging cuts both ways); clear Normalize to use the year as filed. Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.

Weigh NAT against another business →

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "Nordic American Tankers Limited (NAT), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/NAT, data as of 2026-07-09.

Manual order: ← NAMM its page in the Manual NBTX →

Industry order: ← MATX the Marine Shipping chapter NCLH →