What happened
Shares of Aegean Marine Petroleum Network (NYSE: ANW) are up 18% as of 11:00 a.m. EDT today after the company's announcement yesterday of a management change and today's revelation that analyst group Stifel upgraded the stock.
So what
Yesterday, management said that E. Nikolas Tavlarios was stepping down as president. That, coupled with news about cutting costs, was enough to lift the stock by 8%.
Image source: Getty Images.
Today, Aegean's stock got Stifel's blessing for the plan in the form of an analyst upgrade. In the note, Stifel stated that it sees options to sell assets that could lift the stock, and it is praising the board for being more transparent. That seemed to be enough to send the stock up by double digits today.
Now what
Aegean Chairman Peter C. Georgiopoulos mentioned some opportunities as part of the plan to become a more asset-light business. While I'm sure there are a few opportunities to shed assets, it's hard to imagine being a fuel distributor without a decent amount of assets to move product.
The fact of the matter is that this is a tough, low-margin business, and the company hasn't historically been a wealth-compounding stock over the past decade.
This looks like a prototypical day-trader stock that gets tossed around for a few days on momentum. It's hard to imagine its shares making a worthwhile long-term investment.
