Scorpio Tankers just tripled Q1 net income to $216.3 million on a fleet 8 vessels smaller than last year. CEO Robert Bugbee called it a "knockout quarter" on the May 5 earnings call (Yahoo Finance).

Bank of America agreed. On May 6, BofA issued a rare double upgrade from Underperform to Buy with a price target raised from $76 to $100 (investing.com). BofA sees elevated product tanker rates sustained through the next few quarters even if hostilities with Iran end.

The Q1 numbers:

→ Net income $216.3 million up 272% YoY from $58.2 million (Scorpio 6-K) → Adjusted EPS $3.02 beat the $2.59 consensus by 16.6% (ChartMill) → TCE revenue $303 million up 48% → LR2 daily TCE $50,830 per vessel → Pro forma net cash $876 million with path to $2 billion by early summer

The average fleet that did it was 91.0 vessels, down from 99.0 in Q1 2025. The smaller fleet outearned the bigger fleet by every metric.

STNG hit a 52 week intraday high of $87.39 on May 5 (CNBC). On May 12, Scorpio closed a $230 million convertible note reopening at 110.25% of par and deployed $55 million to repurchase 649,427 shares at $84.69 (Scorpio 6-K).

The structural read: 57% of the global LR2 fleet is currently trading crude oil because Aframax dirty rates are north of $100,000 per day. The effective clean product tanker fleet is smaller than the nominal fleet (Scorpio earnings presentation).

Q2 2026 booked LR2 rate as of March 20 was $101,000 per day (StockTitan).

Smaller fleet. Higher rates. Stronger balance sheet. Path to $2 billion cash.

Full breakdown: