SFL Corporation Ltd (SFL)
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symbol.quality_heading
We found at least one documented issue that threatens the company itself — regardless of how the stock is currently valued.
The red light here is about financing, not about the share price. What carries is documented: $3.7 billion of contracted charter revenue with a remaining term of 6.3 years, 68 percent of it with investment-grade customers, utilization of 97 to 100 percent across every shipping segment, and $267.1 million of operating cash flow in 2025. The level is nevertheless decided one line further down: interest expense of $180.5 million exceeded the entire operating income of $136.7 million in 2025 — earnings no longer covered the company's own interest, and the year ended with a loss of $26.4 million. On top of that come $742.8 million of contractual payments due within one year against $288 million of available liquidity and $848.1 million of outstanding yard payments, while the annual report expressly gives no assurance that all facilities will be refinanced in time on acceptable terms. The balance sheet is not exhausted — the equity ratio of 26 percent sits above the covenant floor of 20 percent, and the first quarter of 2026 was back in the black at $26.1 million — but a landlord whose earnings no longer carry its own interest burden while it must refinance hundreds of millions depends on the capital markets, not on its own business alone. Hence red. The decision is yours.
symbol.quality_note
SFL Corporation leases out container ships, tankers, car carriers and two drilling rigs — and has paid a dividend every single quarter since its 2004 listing. That streak is what carried the stock to rank 29 in our Big Earnings Surprise scanner (as of July 25, 2026). We read the annual report (20-F) for 2025 and the quarterly filings (6-K) through May 2026: a $3.7 billion fixed-rate charter backlog, 68 percent of it with investment-grade customers — but also an interest bill larger than the entire operating income, a quarterly rate cut by a quarter in the autumn of 2025, and $848 million still owed on five newbuildings. An unbroken row of check marks says nothing about how big each check mark was.
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Stock Watch
This analysis is as of July 26, 2026. Stock Watch will tell you what's changed at SFL since then.
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Appears in These Scanners
This stock currently matches 13 of our scanner strategies — each hit links to the scanner.
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Trading Day
Key levels of the most recently completed trading day — not a live quote.
52-Week Range
Current price 12.30 $ — 92% of the range above the low.
Lowest and highest closing price over the last 52 weeks. The marker shows where the current price sits within that range: close to the high speaks for strength, close to the low for weakness.
Basics
Performance
Technical Indicators
Calculated from the price history · as of 08/03/2026
Valuation
Profitability
Balance Sheet & Safety
Growth
Dividend
Quality & Screener
AI Rating
NeutralSFL vermietet Schiffe und Bohranlagen mit 24 Beschäftigten; in den geprüften Berichten (20-F 2025 und 2024, sechs 6-K-Meldungen) gibt es keinen KI-Umsatz und keinen KI-Einsatz im Kerngeschäft — die einzige Erwähnung im 20-F 2025 stellt ausdrücklich fest, dass Künstliche Intelligenz nur „in begrenztem Umfang“ genutzt und nicht in die Kernprozesse eingebunden ist.
View the full file — quotes, sources, reviewed filings
„Additionally, artificial intelligence technologies, including generative artificial intelligence, continue to evolve rapidly. While we currently use such technologies in a limited capacity to support certain aspects of our operations, they are not integrated into our core business processes."
Darüber hinaus entwickeln sich Technologien der Künstlichen Intelligenz, einschließlich generativer Künstlicher Intelligenz, weiterhin rasch. Zwar setzen wir solche Technologien derzeit in begrenztem Umfang zur Unterstützung bestimmter Bereiche unseres Geschäftsbetriebs ein, sie sind jedoch nicht in unsere Kerngeschäftsprozesse eingebunden.
„We may choose to expand our use of artificial intelligence in the future; however, given the pace of technological development, we cannot fully assess the potential impact these technologies may have on our industry or our business at this time."
Wir könnten uns künftig entscheiden, unseren Einsatz Künstlicher Intelligenz auszuweiten; angesichts des Tempos der technologischen Entwicklung können wir derzeit jedoch nicht vollständig einschätzen, welche Auswirkungen diese Technologien auf unsere Branche oder unser Geschäft haben könnten.
Filings Reviewed: 20-F 2026-03-16 · 20-F 2025-03-17 · 6-K 2026-05-13 · 6-K 2026-05-12 · 6-K 2026-04-30 · 6-K 2026-03-06 · 6-K 2025-12-19
Rated on July 25, 2026 · How the Rating Is Built
Highlighted are things our editorial team noticed: green = stands out as strong, red = deserves a closer look. No single metric is a verdict on its own — always read it in context.
Analysts & Price Target
The price target sits 0.7% above the current price.
- Consensus
- Sell
- Analyst Ratings
- 4
Combined picture of the price targets and recommendations of every analyst covering the stock. Price targets are expectations for the next 12 months, not promises — and they often follow the price rather than predict it.
Estimates by Fiscal Year
| Fiscal Year | EPS Estimate ($) | EPS Range ($) | Revenue Estimate ($M) | Expected Growth | Analysts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12/31/2026 | 0.23 | 0.07 – 0.43 | 685 | 52.6% | 4 |
| 12/31/2027 | 0.59 | 0.28 – 0.96 | 759 | 161.4% | 4 |
Average of the analyst estimates for the coming fiscal years. The range shows how far the most optimistic and the most cautious estimate sit apart — the wider it is, the less certain the expectation.
Next Reporting Date
- Expected Earnings per Share
- 0.08 $
Expected date of the next quarterly or annual figures. Dates do shift occasionally — only the invitation issued by the company is binding.
Revenue & Profit
Cash Flow
Balance Sheet
Margins
Per Share
Click the chart or tab into it, then use ← and → to step through the periods.
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· Total · per year
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The figures could not be loaded right now.
Source: fundamental data
Quarterly Figures
| Quarter | EPS (Earnings Per Share) | EPS YoY (%) | Sales ($M) | Sales YoY (%) | Net Margin (%) | OCF ($M) | FCF ($M) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024: Q2 | 0.16 | 100.00 | 187 | 15.20 | 11.00 | 124 | 2 |
| 2024: Q3 | 0.36 | 33.30 | 253 | 24.40 | 17.60 | 81 | -225 |
| 2024: Q4 | 0.13 | -35.00 | 225 | 7.30 | 9.00 | 102 | -25 |
| 2025: Q1 | 0.03 | -91.70 | 185 | -18.30 | -17.20 | 79 | 59 |
| 2025: Q2 | 0.01 | -93.80 | 189 | 0.70 | 0.80 | 70 | 42 |
| 2025: Q3 | 0.07 | -80.60 | 175 | -30.70 | 4.90 | 67 | 49 |
| 2025: Q4 | 0.04 | -69.20 | 171 | -24.10 | -2.70 | 75 | 70 |
| 2026: Q1 | 0.08 | 166.70 | 175 | -5.80 | 14.90 | 34 | 27 |
- EPS (Earnings Per Share):
- Quarterly profit divided by the total share count — how much of the profit works out to a single share.
- YoY (Year over Year):
- Change versus the same quarter a year ago — this is how you compare without seasonal distortion (e.g. the holiday shopping season).
- Sales:
- All revenue for the quarter, before any costs are deducted — the top line of the income statement.
- Net Margin:
- What percentage of sales is left over as profit in the end. Negative means the company is posting a loss.
- OCF (Operating Cash Flow):
- The cash that actually flows into the till from the core business during the quarter — harder to dress up than book profit.
- FCF (Free Cash Flow):
- Operating cash flow minus capital expenditures — the money that's genuinely free to use, say for paying down debt, buybacks, or dividends.
Annual Figures
| Fiscal Year | Revenue ($M) | EBIT ($M) | Net Income ($M) | EPS ($) | Operating Cash Flow ($M) | Equity ($M) | Total Assets ($M) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 413 | 168 | 146 | 1.57 | 230 | 1,134 | 2,937 |
| 2017 | 381 | 155 | 101 | 1.06 | 178 | 1,195 | 3,012 |
| 2018 | 419 | 118 | 74 | 0.70 | 201 | 1,180 | 3,878 |
| 2019 | 456 | 138 | 89 | 0.83 | 250 | 1,106 | 3,885 |
| 2020 | 400 | -138 | -224 | -2.06 | 276 | 796 | 3,093 |
| 2021 | 495 | 243 | 164 | 1.18 | 294 | 982 | 3,459 |
| 2022 | 656 | 275 | 203 | 1.48 | 355 | 1,091 | 3,861 |
| 2023 | 738 | 240 | 84 | 0.66 | 343 | 1,039 | 3,731 |
| 2024 | 892 | 307 | 131 | 1.01 | 370 | 1,128 | 4,108 |
| 2025 | 720 | 137 | -26 | -0.20 | 290 | 961 | 3,638 |
Fiscal years from the audited annual reports, oldest first. EBIT is the operating profit before interest and taxes; total assets are everything the company owns.
Assessment: Opportunities & Risks
A fixed-rate charter backlog of $3.7 billion with a weighted remaining term of 6.3 years (March 31, 2026), 68 percent of it with investment-grade customers; utilization of 97 to 100 percent across all shipping segments in the first quarter of 2026 (6-K of May 12, 2026).
89 consecutive quarterly dividends since the 2004 NYSE listing, most recently raised to $0.22 per share (6-K of May 12, 2026) — but cut from $0.27 to $0.20 in the autumn of 2025 (down 25.9 percent), and the $125.1 million paid in 2025 came out of $267.1 million of operating cash flow, not out of profit (20-F 2025, Item 8.A).
Interest expense of $180.5 million against operating income of $136.7 million in 2025 — producing a net loss of $26.4 million; total debt including leases of $2,584.1 million against equity of $960.9 million (December 31, 2025), with bond coupons between 7.25 and 8.875 percent (20-F 2025, Item 5).
$742.8 million of contractual payments within one year (December 31, 2025) against $288 million of available liquidity (March 31, 2026), plus $848.1 million of outstanding yard payments for five newbuildings due in 2028; the annual report expressly gives no assurance that all facilities will be refinanced in time on acceptable terms (20-F 2025, Item 5.B).
Drilling revenue down 59 percent to $96.3 million in 2025 because the semi-submersible rig Hercules was warm stacked in Norway; a $16.4 million segment loss in the first quarter of 2026 at 50 percent utilization. The new Canadian contract worth roughly $170 million does not start until the first quarter of 2027 (6-K of March 6, 2026).
Five customers accounted for roughly 71 percent of 2025 revenue (Maersk alone 26 percent) — high credit quality, but high dependence. Largest shareholder Hemen Holding, at 17.8 percent (March 11, 2026), is also a counterparty: in 2024 SFL bought three product tankers from entities related to Hemen for $234.9 million (20-F 2025, Items 4 and 7).
SFL Corporation is the landlord of the seas: 24 employees, a $3.6 billion balance sheet, $3.7 billion of contractually committed rental income and a dividend streak unbroken since 2004. The streak is real — it merely conceals that the rate was cut by a quarter in the autumn of 2025 and that 2025 closed with a $26.4 million loss, because interest expense of $180.5 million exceeded the entire operating income. Whoever invests here is buying a high payout funded from cash flow, with leverage — and the task of refinancing $742.8 million within a year and raising $848.1 million for newbuildings. Not investment advice.
- SFL landed on the research list at rank 29 of 81 U.S. hits in our in-house Big Earnings Surprise scanner (as of July 25, 2026, RS rating 78). The scanner lists are recalculated daily, so the rank quoted is a snapshot.
- SFL is a foreign private issuer and reports on Form 20-F and Form 6-K — there is no Form 10-Q. Every quarterly figure in this analysis comes from 6-K exhibits, most recently those of May 12 and May 13, 2026 (as of March 31, 2026); no later filings existed up to the July 25, 2026 data cut-off.
- Reporting and trading currency are identical (US dollars), even though the company is domiciled in Bermuda and its management works out of Norway. The renaming from Ship Finance International Limited to SFL Corporation Ltd. took place in September 2019 — the ticker was unchanged.
- Price and market-capitalization figures (roughly $1.5 billion) are as of July 25, 2026, cross-checked against the 132,992,784 EPS-relevant shares in the interim statements as of March 31, 2026; analyses are evergreen, and daily prices are not a buy argument.
About the Company
SFL Corporation Ltd., a maritime and offshore asset owning and chartering company, engages in the ownership, operation, and chartering out of vessels and offshore related assets on medium and long-term charters. The company operates in various sectors of the maritime, and shipping and offshore industries, including oil transportation, dry bulk shipments, oil products transportation, container transportation, car transportation, and drilling rigs. As of December 31, 2025, the company owned 17 tankers, two dry bulk carriers, 21 container vessels, seven car carriers, and two drilling rigs. It primarily operates in Bermuda, Canada, Cyprus, Liberia, Namibia, Norway, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the Marshall Islands. SFL Corporation Ltd. was formerly known as Ship Finance International Limited and changed its name to SFL Corporation Ltd. in September 2019. The company was incorporated in 2003 and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda.
| Employees | 24 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Hamilton, Bermuda |
| Address | Par-la-Ville Place, HM 08 Hamilton, Bermuda |
| Phone | 441 295 9500 |
| Website | sflcorp.com |
| IPO Date | 17. Jun 2004 |
| ISIN | BMG7738W1064 |
Management
| Name | Title | Birth Year |
|---|---|---|
| Ole Bjarte Hjertaker | CEO of SFL Management AS & Director | 1967 |
| Aksel C. Olesen | Chief Financial Officer of SFL Management AS | 1976 |
| Trym Otto Sjølie | Chief Operating Officer | – |
| Thecla Panagides | Chief Accounting Officer | – |
| Espen Nilsen Gjosund | Vice President of Investor Relations | – |
| Jannicke Eilertsen | Compliance Officer | – |
| Mikkel Storm Weum | Senior Vice President of Business Development | 1987 |
| André Reppen | Senior VP & Chief Treasurer of SFL Management AS | 1982 |
| James Ayers | Company Secretary | 1982 |
Executives per the latest required filings; titles kept in their original language. Source: fundamental data.
Chart
Interactive price chart (TradingView).
Data as of: July 31, 2026 · Source: fundamental data & SEC filings (annual and quarterly reports, 10-K/10-Q)
Note: pure fact-based analysis, not investment advice and not a solicitation to buy or sell. All figures without guarantee.