Earnings Labs

StealthGas Inc. (GASS)

Q4 2025 Earnings Call· Mon, Mar 2, 2026

$9.82

+1.87%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the StealthGas Fourth Quarter 2025 Results Conference Call and Webcast. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Michael Jolliffe, Chairman of the Board of Directors. Please go ahead.

Michael Jolliffe

Analyst

Thank you, Nadia. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our fourth quarter 2025 earnings conference call and webcast. This is Michael Jolliffe, Chairman of the Board of Directors. And joining me on our call today, as usual, is our CEO, Harry Vafias; and Konstantinos Sistovaris from our Investor Relations. Before we commence our presentation, I would like to remind you that we will be discussing forward-looking statements, which reflect current views with respect to future events and financial performance and are subject to material risks and uncertainties. So if you could all take a moment to read our disclaimer on Slide 2 of this presentation, I shall be grateful. Risks are further disclosed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. So let's proceed with the presentation on Slide 3. And since this is the year-end results, I will start by saying that 2025 was a very successful year for StealthGas despite all the geopolitical turbulence. The company maintained its high profitability, reporting adjusted net income of $65.6 million for the year, the second highest in its history. So we are very pleased that our strategy has worked, and we are able to achieve high profits consistently for the last 4 years. Now in terms of quarterly results, we did hit a bump in the fourth quarter as we did face some idle time on some larger vessels and one of those was out of action. Revenues came in at a respectable $39.4 million in quarter 4, albeit 9% lower than last year. Adjusted net income for the quarter was $13.3 million, also lower compared to the $16.4 million achieved last year. In terms of earnings per share, these were $0.36 for the quarter and $1.77 for the year, underlying the fact that company's stock is very attractive on…

Konstantinos Sistovaris

Analyst

Thank you, Michael. Starting with Slide 6, where we have a snapshot of the income statement for the fourth quarter and full year of 2025 against the same period of 2024. I will start with the quarterly results. While there was a small increase in fleet days of 3%, operational utilization overall fell to 89% as a result of dry dockings and spot exposure that led to increased off-hire days, especially on a couple of the larger vessels, including the MGC that was out of action. As a result, revenues for the fourth quarter came in at $39.4 million, marking a 9.4% decrease year-on-year. Operating expenses were $12.7 million for the quarter, well contained and lower than last year's. In terms of other expenses, there was also a reduction in G&A expenses, depreciation and particularly reduced interest costs by $1.4 million as the debt was extinguished. Net income for the fourth quarter was $12.8 million compared to $14.2 million for the same quarter of last year, a 10% decrease. Earnings per share for the quarter were $0.34 and on an adjusted basis, $0.36. So overall, the company retains its high profitability as LPG charter rates continue to be at historical elevated levels. In terms of the yearly results, revenues came in at $173.2 million compared to $167.2 (sic) [ $167.3 ] million last year, a 3.5% increase as the majority of the vessels achieved high rates and also as a result of the slightly higher number of fleet days. However, this was counterbalanced by a doubling of voyage expenses, an increase of $10.9 million, mostly consisting of port and bunker expenses, which is consistent with the doubling of spot market days for the fleet during the year. OpEx for the year also increased by $4.1 million, mostly due to the…

Harry Vafias

Analyst

Let's continue on Slide 9 to discuss the news on the LPG markets. Global LPG exports continue to register strong growth at 6% last year. U.S. exports of propane saw a resurgence in Q4 following a slight drop in Q3 as a result of trade tensions and registered close to 6% growth for last year. Driving the increase in exports, as discussed before, is the U.S. now accounting for about 47% of global exports. The major terminal expansion projects underway in the U.S. will allow for a substantial increase in LPG exports and resolve any bottleneck issues. Within this year, Enterprise expects to have online 2 major projects in Neches River and the Houston Channel. And while LPG exports are generally production driven, the key will be to find buyers for the product as it may be challenging for demand to keep up with the increased supply as the recent U.S. inventory buildup in late 2025 shows. In the Middle East, there is also -- there are also expansion projects underway in Qatar and the UAE that will add 20 million tons by the end of the decade. However, developing at this moment is the situation in Iran as Iran, despite the sanctions, is a major LPG exporter with over 12 million tons last year and exports -- or exports from the Gulf in general if the conflict spreads may lead to a major trade disruption. In the face of such uncertainty, rates usually spike violently. As far as other major players, there are good news coming out of India with significant growth in LPG imports of 12% for last year and a major increase in imports from the U.S. There's still a lot of room for U.S. volumes towards India to rise as they were almost nonexistent before the…

Operator

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now all disconnect. Have a nice day.