Imagine you are buying a used car dealership. The cars on the lot are worth $1 million in total. Someone offers to sell you the whole business for $800,000. You are getting a deal — buying $1 worth of cars for 80 cents. Now flip it: they want $1.3 million for those same cars. Now you are paying a premium. Tanker stocks work exactly the same way, and P/NAV is the tool that tells you which situation you are in.
P/NAV stands for Price-to-Net Asset Value. NAV (Net Asset Value, which is the current market price of the fleet minus the company’s debt, divided by shares outstanding) is the shipping equivalent of the cars in that dealership. If a tanker stock trades at 0.80x P/NAV, you are paying 80 cents for every dollar of ship value. If it trades at 1.20x, you are paying $1.20 for that same dollar. Some buyers are willing to pay a premium for quality management or because shipping rates are surging. Others wait patiently for discounts. Knowing where a stock sits relative to NAV helps you decide which camp makes sense for you.
Tanker stocks historically trade between 0.70x and 1.30x NAV depending on where we are in the rate cycle. Below 0.85x is generally considered cheap. Above 1.10x is generally considered expensive. Right now, with crude tanker rates at multi-year highs due to the Iran-Hormuz situation and the ongoing sanctions trade, many names have rallied hard. The question you need to ask is: how much of that good news is already priced in?
One important technical note before you read the table. P/NAV and P/B (price-to-book value, the ratio of share price to accounting book value) are related but different. Accounting book value depreciates ships on a fixed schedule over 20-25 years, but a 15-year-old VLCC does not lose 60% of its real-world market value just because accounting says so. Ships hold value surprisingly well when demand is strong. That means for many tanker companies, especially those with older fleets, accounting book value is lower than the actual market value of the ships. A high P/B can sometimes mask a much lower, more attractive P/NAV. We flag this clearly in the table where it applies.
This Week’s Scorecard
Prices are as of April 10, 2026. P/NAV estimates used where available from shipping analysis sources. P/B (accounting book value proxy) used where direct P/NAV estimates were not available, and flagged accordingly.
| Ticker | Company | Price (Apr 10) | P/NAV or P/B | vs. NAV | Signal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FRO | Frontline | $34.53 | ~1.09x P/NAV | +9% premium | Pricey |
| INSW | International Seaways | $73.80 | ~0.75x P/NAV | -25% discount | Cheap |
| STNG | Scorpio Tankers | $76.01 | 1.23x P/B† | +23% above book | Pricey |
| DHT | DHT Holdings | $18.35 | 2.60x P/B‡ | P/B overstates; see note | See note |
| HAFN | Hafnia | $8.28 | 1.77x P/B† | +77% above book | Pricey |
| TNK | Teekay Tankers | $76.99 | ~0.65x P/NAV | -35% discount | Cheap |
| CMBT | CMB.TECH (fmr. EURN) | $12.75 | N/A | See note below | N/A |
| ASC | Ardmore Shipping | $14.62 | 0.94x P/B† | -6% below book | Fair |
† P/B (accounting book value) used as NAV proxy. True P/NAV is likely lower in a strong market because ships hold market value above depreciated book value.
‡ DHT’s P/B of 2.60x significantly overstates P/NAV. Its VLCC fleet is heavily depreciated on the balance sheet but carries strong real-world value. Direct P/NAV estimate unavailable.
Data sources: Finviz (P/B ratios and book values per share, April 7-10, 2026), shipping sector analysis via web search for P/NAV estimates (FRO, TNK), Seeking Alpha analysis for INSW P/NAV estimate. CMBT excluded from NAV analysis (see note). Prices as of April 10, 2026.
What Stands Out This Week
Teekay Tankers (TNK) is the most interesting name on this list right now. At roughly 0.65x NAV, you are buying that fleet for 65 cents on the dollar, even after TNK has nearly doubled over the past year. Why the discount? Teekay runs mid-size crude tankers, Aframaxes and Suezmaxes, not the giant VLCCs that grab headlines. Analysts have started to downgrade it, with DNB Markets moving to Hold in February 2026. The market is pricing in some rate moderation ahead. But a 35% discount to what the ships are worth on the open market is a meaningful number. If you believe tanker rates stay elevated for another 12-18 months, 0.65x NAV is the kind of entry point that historically comes along only when the crowd is nervous.
International Seaways (INSW) is the other name trading at a meaningful discount. At roughly 0.75x NAV, INSW trades much cheaper than its 1.80x P/B suggests, which illustrates exactly why using P/NAV matters more than P/B for this analysis. INSW operates a diversified fleet across crude and product tankers, a design choice that cushions earnings when one segment weakens. Six analysts cover the stock and all six rate it a Buy, with an average price target of $77.31. The stock hit a 52-week low of $26.63 just a year ago. It has nearly tripled, and it still trades below its fleet value.
On the expensive end, Hafnia (HAFN) set a new 52-week high on April 9, the day before this scorecard was published. The P/B of 1.77x reflects how aggressively the product tanker market has repriced. Keep in mind that P/B likely overstates the premium here since ships probably hold more market value than their depreciated book value suggests. Scorpio Tankers (STNG) at 1.23x P/B looks pricey on paper, but STNG has the cleanest balance sheet in the group, with minimal long-term debt relative to equity and a book value per share of $61.80 that has been growing steadily. A 1.23x multiple on a well-capitalized, modern product tanker fleet is debatable, but it is not cheap.
One change worth flagging: the ticker EURN, Euronav N.V., no longer exists as a pure tanker investment. The company was renamed CMB.TECH and began trading as CMBT on NYSE in October 2024 after Compagnie Maritime Belge took control. CMB.TECH is now building hydrogen- and ammonia-powered vessels alongside crude tankers, which changes the valuation framework entirely. The stock trades around $12.75, well below the analyst median price target near $19. We have excluded it from the NAV comparison this week because a direct P/NAV comparison for a diversifying industrial company is not straightforward.
The Bottom Line
For the five names where we have meaningful P/NAV estimates or reliable P/B proxies, the blended average comes out to roughly 0.93x, right in the middle of the historical range. The sector is not obviously cheap or expensive at the aggregate level. But the range matters more than the average right now. Two names, TNK at 0.65x and INSW at 0.75x, are trading at a meaningful discount to what their ships are worth. Two names, HAFN and STNG, are trading at a noticeable premium. That kind of spread is a good reminder that tanker investing is not a sector call so much as a stock-picking exercise. The same rising tide of oil prices and tanker rates has lifted all boats, but some boats are now priced for perfection while others still offer room for error.
Quick Glossary
P/NAV: Price-to-Net Asset Value. The ratio of a stock’s market price to its net asset value. For a tanker company, a ratio below 1.0 means you are buying fleet value at a discount to what those ships are worth on the open market right now.
View live price data for all eight names on TradingView
NAV: Net Asset Value. For a tanker company, this is the current market price of all the ships, minus total debt, divided by the number of shares outstanding. Think of it as what you would pocket per share if you sold every ship today and paid off all the debt.
TCE: Time charter equivalent, the daily rate a ship earns after voyage costs (fuel, port fees, canal fees) are subtracted. It is the most common earnings benchmark in the tanker industry.