• ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd.(NYSE:ZIM)shot up nearly 9% Thursday as the Israeli shipping firm continues to add to the more than 100% gain that it’s enjoyed following a weak January IPO.
• ZIM rose 8.8% to close at a session-high $26.78 on the New York Stock Exchange. All told, the stock has gained some 130% since ZIMfell 23%on on Jan. 28, its first trading day.
• The company’s poor first-day performance came after ZIM had already cut the size and price of its initial public offering. The IPO priced at $15 a share, well below its expected $16-$19 price range. ZIM also only sold 14.5M shares instead of the 17.5M it originally offered.
• However, the stock has mostly risen since then, peaking at $28.78 intraday on March 19 ahead of the company’s Q4 earnings report.
• ZIM did pull back for a few days despite reporting that Q4 revenues shot up 64.4% to $1.36B from $827.3M a year earlier. ZIM also said net income soared to $366.4M in Q4 2020 from just $1.2M in Q4 2019, citing increased freight rates and carried volume.
• Nonetheless, the stock fell for two days beginning March 23 -- the same day that a ship ran aground in the Suez Canal, blocking international shipping.
• However, ZIM shares quickly recovered, as the company wasn’t directly involved in the accident and the firm is primarily known for trans-Pacific shipping.
• Seeking Alpha contributor J. Mintzmyer recently analyzed ZIM and gave it a $20 to $30 valuation, adding that if he used rival shipping firm Hapag-Lloyd as a comparable,"pricing in the $40s to $50s would arguably be more appropriate."