One-glance verdict
Undervalued
$14.72 our estimate vs market $13.54
Wall Street consensus: $13.17 (-10.5% lower than our fair-value estimate)
8% below our estimate, below the bear case
Fundamentals snapshot
SFL Corporation Ltd.
SFL · NYQ · Industrials · Marine Shipping
Current price
$13.54
52-week range
$6.73 - $13.98
Market cap
$1.88B
Balance sheet
Distressed
1.01x Concerning
Net debt $2.27B. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
2 Rewards
3 Risks
2 rewards · 3 risks
- Reward Free cash flow was positive in 2/10 years.
- Reward Dividend yield is 6.5% with 23-year payout history.
- Risk Stock trades 417.5% above its 5-year average P/E.
- Risk Insider ownership is only 17.2% (peer median: 31.3%).
What this company does
SFL Corporation Ltd.
SFL Corporation is like a landlord for the high seas, owning a large fleet of ships and oil rigs that it rents out for transporting things like oil, cars, and consumer goods. The company makes its money from long-term rental agreements (called charters), which provides a predictable and steady stream of income. This matters because having customers locked into long contracts helps protect the company from the constant ups and downs of the global shipping industry.
How the company got here
SFL Corporation started in 2003 as Ship Finance International, initially focused on owning oil tankers. Over the next decade, the company realized that relying on a single part of the shipping industry was risky. To spread out its risk, it began buying other types of ships, like those that carry consumer goods and raw materials. In 2019, it changed its name to SFL Corporation to better reflect its new, more diversified business of owning a wide variety of maritime assets.
What it actually does
Think of SFL as a landlord for the high seas. The company buys very expensive assets, like giant ships and offshore drilling rigs, and then leases them out to other companies for long periods. Its customers, which include major shipping lines and energy companies, pay SFL a steady, regular fee, similar to rent, to use these assets in their own operations. This business model, known as chartering (the industry term for leasing), provides SFL with a predictable stream of income, making it different from companies that are paid based on the fluctuating prices of single voyages.
Tanker Vessels
This is one of SFL's original and largest businesses. The company owns various types of tankers that are leased out to transport crude oil and other refined oil products, like gasoline, around the world. Energy companies and commodity traders pay SFL to use these vessels for multi-year periods. This provides SFL with stable revenue (money it earns from its business activities) from the energy transportation sector.
Container Vessels
This segment owns the massive ships that carry the familiar metal boxes (containers) you see on trains and trucks. These vessels are the backbone of global trade, moving everything from electronics to clothing. SFL leases these ships to major global shipping lines who then use them to operate their worldwide delivery routes. These long-term leases provide a steady income stream tied to global commerce.
Dry Bulk Carriers
This part of the business owns ships designed to carry large quantities of raw, unpackaged materials, like iron ore, coal, and grains. These are essential for industries like construction and food production. SFL charters (leases) these carriers to companies that need to move these fundamental commodities across the globe. This segment helps diversify SFL's business away from just oil and consumer goods.
Car Carriers
SFL also owns specialized vessels that are essentially floating parking garages, designed to transport thousands of cars and trucks across oceans. Major automobile manufacturers pay to use these ships to get their vehicles from factories to markets around the world. This is a niche but important part of the global supply chain (the network of companies involved in producing and distributing a product).
Offshore Assets
This is a smaller but significant part of SFL's business that serves the offshore energy industry. The company owns assets like drilling rigs that are leased to energy companies for oil and gas exploration and production. These are highly specialized, expensive pieces of equipment that command high rental fees, often under very long-term contracts, providing another source of predictable income.
What management is betting on now
SFL's main strategy is to continue diversifying its fleet to avoid being too dependent on any single part of the volatile shipping market. [3] The company is focused on renewing its fleet by selling older vessels and acquiring modern, more fuel-efficient ships to meet new environmental regulations. [1] Management continues to prioritize securing long-term charter contracts, as this provides the predictable cash flow (the net amount of cash moving into and out of a business) needed to support its business and pay dividends (a portion of a company's profits paid out to shareholders). [3]
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
Revenue
$733.04M
Net income
$-26.43M
Diluted EPS
-0.20
Operating cash flow
$267.14M
Free cash flow
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Sources
Revenue
$904.40M
Net income
$130.65M
Diluted EPS
1.01
Operating cash flow
$369.86M
Free cash flow
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Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $14.72 vs current price $13.54
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $13.17 (-10.5% lower than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $14.72 a share — about 8.6% above today's price of $13.54, so the stock currently looks cheap (undervalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Distressed
Net debt $2.3B. Interest coverage 1.0x.
Net debt
$2.27B
Interest coverage
1.01x
SFL Corporation Ltd.'s profit covers its interest bill about 1.0 times over. which is weaker than most peers shown here.
Distressed
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
SFL
BASELINE
SFL Corporation Ltd.
Total debt $2.38B Interest coverage 1.01x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $2.47B Interest coverage 3.26x +222% vs SFL Carries about 3.2x more debt cushion than SFL.
Total debt $1.21B Interest coverage 11.64x +1,049% vs SFL Carries about 11.5x more debt cushion than SFL.
Total debt $1.50B Interest coverage 5.06x +399% vs SFL Carries about 5.0x more debt cushion than SFL.
Total debt $671.76M Interest coverage 9.63x +851% vs SFL Carries about 9.5x more debt cushion than SFL.
Total debt $1.18B Interest coverage 2.19x +116% vs SFL Carries about 2.2x more debt cushion than SFL.
What you should know
The case for and against SFL
2 Rewards
3 Risks
Rewards
-
Free cash flow was positive in 2/10 years.
-
Dividend yield is 6.5% with 23-year payout history.
Risks
-
Stock trades 417.5% above its 5-year average P/E.
-
Insider ownership is only 17.2% (peer median: 31.3%).
-
Operating margin compressed from 38.7% to 33.7% over 3 years.
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)
56.44x
Forward P/E
21.27x
P/B
1.81x
P/S
2.64x
EV/EBITDA
9.79x
PEG ratio
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Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
60.5%
Operating margin
33.7%
Net margin
9.0%
ROE
6.2%
ROA
3.4%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
2.30x
Current ratio
0.38x
Quick ratio
0.23x
Total debt
$2.38B
Total cash
$118.12M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$3.06B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
9.3%
EPS TTM
0.24
EPS 5Y CAGR
—
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$1.34B
Free CF TTM
$196.66M
FCF margin
6.4%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
6.5%
Payout ratio
362.5%
Last ex-div date
2026-09-09