Lerøy faller på Oslo Børs

Oslo Børs' main index briefly closed 0.02 percent higher on Wednesday. Oil prices fluctuated, but held above $90 for the last two days. Brent spot price opened around $91.6, up 0.4 percent since midnight. Internationally, Wall Street in the USA saw a drop on Tuesday evening, with technology stocks having a rough day. Early Wednesday saw a relative flatness in pre-market trading on Wall Street.

Internationally, several markets saw significant declines, including South Korea's stock exchange down around 6 percent and Tokyo's down more than 3 percent. Shipping company Lerøy reported weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter results, falling short of analyst expectations. Operating profit was NOK 574 million, down from NOK 680 million a year earlier and below the NOK 709 million forecast.

Revenue fell to NOK 7.9 billion. Lerøy attributes the decline to lower spill volumes and weaker margins in its Market Operations segment. The company still aims to maintain a spill volume of 195,000 tons in Norway by 2026 and expects higher earnings from cod in the year ahead than previously estimated. Pareto Securities analyst Henrik Longva Knutsen describes the overall picture from the report as "a bit disheveled," but believes consensus earnings estimates for 2026 are likely to be revised down after this.

He notes that the results were weaker than expected and that Lerøy is signaling similar or higher costs into the third quarter. The analyst anticipates a negative stock reaction but stresses that upcoming company comments will be important. Results from several other Oslo Børs companies, including IT firm Link Mobility, Elmera, Zaptec, Vow, and rigging company Dolphin Drilling, also came in the morning hours.

Offshore driller Dof saw a significant increase in revenue to $712 million and a EBITDA increase to $358 million. Much of the revenue boost is tied to the insurance claim for the Skandi Amazonas ship, which ran aground off Brazil in May. Excluding this, Dof posted a narrower $238 million EBITDA, close to analyst expectations. The company's dividend was raised to $0.38 per share, one cent more than the previous quarter.

Guidance for 2026 earnings now ranges between $840 million and $860 million, down from the previous range of $840 million to $880 million.