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New Fortress Energy (NFE +6.9%) looks poised to rack up its 13th gain in 14 sessions to its highest level in nearly a year, as Stifel analysts raise their price target to $68 from $45 on the Buy-rated stock following last week’s news that company filed applications to build an offshore liquefied natural gas production platform off the Louisiana coast.
“While finding capital needed for the project is TBD, even with more equity capital, we believe it should be extremely accretive” for New Fortress, Stifel analyst Ben Nolan writes, seeing the Louisiana project along with another in Congo and possibly other projects to come as unlocking the “growth engine.”
New Fortress management’s Q1 2023 start-up target for the project seems optimistic, Nolan says, but “even if delayed six months, with the forward curve above $22/MMBtu in 2023, getting any incremental liquefaction capacity that soon could result in an investment payback period of less than 12 months.”
New Fortress Chairman and CEO Wes Edens said its Fast LNG plant design will “enable a much lower cost and faster deployment schedule.”
