One-glance verdict
Undervalued
$58.42 our estimate vs market $8.89
Wall Street consensus: $14.00 (-76.0% lower than our fair-value estimate)
85% below our estimate, below the bear case
Fundamentals snapshot
StealthGas Inc.
GASS · NMS · Industrials · Marine Shipping
Current price
$8.89
52-week range
$6.12 - $10.55
Market cap
$334.52M
Balance sheet
Healthy
24.57x Strong cushion
Net cash $168.27M. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
2 Risks
3 rewards · 2 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 3.5% last year.
- Reward Free cash flow was positive in 6/10 years.
- Risk Stock trades 50.6% above its 5-year average P/E.
- Risk Forward P/E (5.9x) is higher than trailing (5.6x) - earnings are expected to drop.
What this company does
StealthGas Inc.
StealthGas is a shipping company that owns a fleet of specialized tankers built to transport gas across the ocean. The company makes its money by charging energy producers to ship liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), such as the propane used in BBQ grills, to customers around the world. Because these fuels are essential for heating, cooking, and industrial use, StealthGas's business acts as a key link in the global energy supply chain (the entire network that gets a product from the supplier to the customer).
How the company got here
StealthGas Inc. was founded in 2004 and is based in Athens, Greece. The company has focused on transporting liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) by sea. A major turning point for the company has been its recent strategic focus on deleveraging (paying down its debt). Over the past few years, the company has aggressively repaid hundreds of millions of dollars in debt, and as of mid-2025, it became a debt-free company for the first time in two decades. This was achieved through a combination of cash flow from its operations and selling off some of its older and smaller vessels.
What it actually does
StealthGas is a shipping company that owns and operates a fleet of ships specifically designed to transport liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Think of them as a specialized delivery service on the ocean for energy products. Their customers are large energy companies, producers, and traders who need to move gases like propane and butane from where they are produced to where they are used. These gases are byproducts of crude oil and natural gas production and are used for everything from heating and cooking to manufacturing plastics.
LPG Carrier Operations
This is the company's sole business. StealthGas makes money by chartering (renting) its fleet of LPG carriers to customers. There are a couple of ways they do this. One is through time charters, which are like long-term leases where a customer pays a fixed daily rate to use a ship for a set period, providing a steady and predictable income stream. The other way is through the spot market, which is like a taxi service for ships, where they are hired for single voyages at the going market rate, which can be more volatile (changeable) but allows the company to take advantage of high prices when demand is strong. The company aims for a balance between these two to manage risk and potential rewards.
What management is betting on now
Having successfully eliminated its debt, the company's management is now focused on the best way to use its large and growing cash position. A key priority is to renew and modernize its fleet of ships, which may involve buying new vessels. They are also focused on returning value to shareholders and have been buying back their own stock, which is known as a share repurchase program (a way for a company to invest in itself by buying its own shares from the open market, which can increase the value of the remaining shares). The company continues to sell older, smaller ships to raise cash and improve its overall financial health, which they refer to as liquidity (how easily a company can meet its short-term debts).
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Loading price history…
Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2024 Q4
$-2.67M
FY2025 Q4
$84.77M
Revenue
$173.16M
Net income
$60.65M
Diluted EPS
1.64
Operating cash flow
$85.18M
Free cash flow
$84.77M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$167.26M
Net income
$69.86M
Diluted EPS
1.90
Operating cash flow
$103.50M
Free cash flow
$-2.67M
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $58.42 vs current price $8.89
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $14.00 (-76.0% lower than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $58.42 a share — about 557.1% above today's price of $8.89, so the stock currently looks cheap (undervalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Healthy
Net cash $168.3M - more cash than debt. Interest coverage 24.6x.
Net debt
$-168.27M
Interest coverage
24.57x
StealthGas Inc.'s profit covers its interest bill about 24.6 times over. which is stronger than every peer shown here.
Healthy
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
GASS
BASELINE
StealthGas Inc.
Total debt $39.19K Interest coverage 24.57x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $646.24M Interest coverage 7.93x -68% vs GASS Carries about 3.1x less debt cushion than GASS.
Total debt $926.06M Interest coverage 2.51x -90% vs GASS Carries about 9.8x less debt cushion than GASS.
Total debt $34.98M Interest coverage 10.33x -58% vs GASS Carries about 2.4x less debt cushion than GASS.
Total debt $2.10B Interest coverage 2.55x -90% vs GASS Carries about 9.6x less debt cushion than GASS.
Total debt $652.77M Interest coverage 7.17x -71% vs GASS Carries about 3.4x less debt cushion than GASS.
What you should know
The case for and against GASS
3 Rewards
2 Risks
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 3.5% last year.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 6/10 years.
-
Trades at 5.6x P/E vs peer median 6.9x (19.0% cheaper).
Risks
-
Stock trades 50.6% above its 5-year average P/E.
-
Forward P/E (5.9x) is higher than trailing (5.6x) - earnings are expected to drop.
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
5.63x
Forward P/E
5.89x
P/B
0.45x
P/S
1.97x
EV/EBITDA
2.23x
PEG ratio
0.85x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
49.1%
Operating margin
31.5%
Net margin
35.0%
ROE
8.5%
ROA
4.0%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
0.00x
Current ratio
9.30x
Quick ratio
8.75x
Total debt
$39.19K
Total cash
$168.31M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$636.71M
Revenue 5Y CAGR
3.6%
EPS TTM
1.58
EPS 5Y CAGR
22.1%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$332.69M
Free CF TTM
$84.77M
FCF margin
13.3%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
—
Payout ratio
0.0%
Last ex-div date
2009-02-26