Thank you to the guy who gave me ULTR, you know who you are. My position is 17000 shares at 13.16. Three recent analyst upgrades and a float of 327k. Now I own 5% of the available float. Small float oil related stock: Average Volume (3 month)3: N/A Average Volume (10 day)3: N/A Shares Outstanding: 15.50M Float: 327.05K % Held by Insiders4: 8.96% % Held by Institutions4: 0.80% Shares Short (as of 10-Nov-06)3: 51.81K Short Ratio (as of 10-Nov-06)3: 0.5 Short % of Float (as of 10-Nov-06)3: N/A Shares Short (prior month)3: 0 Three recent analyst upgrades: 5-Dec-06 UBS Initiated Buy 29-Nov-06 Bear Stearns Initiated Outperform 24-Nov-06 Jefferies & Co Initiated Buy
Jefferies Initiates Ultrapetrol at 'Buy' Friday November 24, 11:30 am ET Jefferies Initiates Coverage of Ultrapetrol at 'Buy;' Cites Its Large, Youthful Dry Bulk Fleet NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of marine transport service Ultrapetrol Ltd. hit a new high Friday after an analyst at Jefferies and Co. touted the shipper's dominance in the South American dry bulk trade. Shares of the newly public Ultrapetrol were up 5 cents to $11.57 in midday trading on the Nasdaq. The stock reached a new high of $12, a 4.2 percent surge from its close at $11.52 on Wednesday, shortly after the opening bell. Shares have gained 17.4 percent since dipping to $9.81 on Nov. 1. The stock debuted Oct. 12. Nassau, Bahamas-based Ultrapetrol operates 446 dry barges that transport agricultural and forestry products, iron ore and other cargos in the Hidrovia Region of South America, a system of rivers comparable to the Mississippi River system in the U.S. that passes through Brazil, Bolivia, Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina. Another 44 tanker barges carry petroleum products, vegetable oils and other liquids in the region and it also operates one barge as a transfer station to provide storage and transshipment services of cargo from river barges to oceangoing vessels. In addition, the company operates two platform supply vessels to deep-water oil explorers in the North Sea and has another six similar vessels under construction. In other ocean business, Ultrapetrol operates three Suezmax carriers, one Aframax carrier, a semi-integrated tug barge and a chemicals and product carrier, and two cruise ships. But Jefferies analyst Douglas Mavrinac, who assigned the company a "Buy" rating and a target price of $16, pointed to the size and age of Ultrapetrol's inland dry bulk business, as well as its operating region. "By owning a large fleet, Ultrapetrol enjoys several competitive advantages, including lower operating costs due to economies of scale, increased negotiation powers with suppliers, the ability to provide single source services for customers, and the flexibility to meet customer demands resulting in higher fleet utilization," Mavrinac said in a research note. Those advantages have landed the company longtime, blue chip customers like Brazil's national oil company Petrobas, Archer Daniels Midland Co. and Cargill Inc. The advantages also provide Ultrapetrol the luxury of long-term contracts and the ability to negotiate fuel price adjustments into those agreements. The company's fleet is also relatively young, Mavrinac observed. Ultrapetrol is presently expanding the cargo capacity of 130 barges and replacing the engines on 16 of its pushboats. The barge fleet also competes successfully against the region's railroad and truck industries, as they are generally safer, more efficient and more environmentally friendly. Finally, the company operates in a rapidly growing trade area of South America. According to Mavrinac, the region accounts for a growing percentage of the world's soybeans, iron ore and other agricultural products. The Hidrovia system passes through most of the region's farming and mining and is ideally situated as a gateway from remote areas to ocean ports. "An important aspect of trade in the region is that the products for export are on average 1,000 miles away from ocean ports," said Mavrinac, whose firm co-managed Ultrapetrol's initial public offering. "Rail and road infrastructure in the region is very limited."