SFL Corporation Ltd (SFL)
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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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Basics
Performance
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.
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.
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 |
| Website | sflcorp.com |
| IPO Date | 17. Jun 2004 |
| Next Earnings | 18. Aug 2026 |
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 24, 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.