After spending much of the past year at a four-star rank, Nordic American Tanker Shipping (NYSE: NAT) has impressed enough top-performing members of our 165,000-strong Motley Fool CAPS community lately to secure some time at a five-star level. A total of 1,007 members have given their opinion on the shipping firm, with many of them offering analysis and commentary explaining the recent optimism.

With many investors expecting improvement in the shipping industry and Nordic American executing its growth plans, more CAPS members like the company's position to profit if the global economy improves.

Having the company's unconventional dividend policy indirectly influenced by spot market rates makes for variable dividends each quarter, but after dividend payouts were on the decline last year, they have been back on the rise in recent quarters. Peers Frontline (NYSE: FRO) and Teekay Tankers (NYSE: TNK) also lifted their dividends in the first quarter, even though Teekay saw dramatically lower revenue and profit.

Although spot rates for Suezmax-size tankers are often volatile, Nordic saw a big jump in rates in the first quarter over prior quarters. It's also been seeing bright spots like an increase in westbound and eastbound sailings from the Middle East.

Some CAPS members believe Nordic American is in an advantaged position in the tanker industry. While a difficult dry bulk sector has sent some dry bulk shippers venturing into other sectors -- like DryShips' (Nasdaq: DRYS) purchase of oil drilling ships and Diana Shipping's (NYSE: DSX) container ship investments -- Nordic boosted its tanker fleet last year and has plans to add more.

Like peer General Maritime (NYSE: GMR), which recently raised close to $200 million in a stock offering to buy more ships, Nordic American has used stock to expand its fleet, but aims to grow its fleet faster than the share count. The sentiment toward a potential tanker industry recovery is also reflected in the recent acquisition of a fleet of product and chemical tankers by dry bulk shipper Navios Maritime (NYSE: NM), which believes it's buying toward the low end of the cycle in a growing industry.

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