Almonty Draws First Sell-Side Endorsement as Buyback, Record Cash and Sangdong Ramp Reshape the Investment Case

The tungsten producer Almonty Industries has picked up its first formal Wall Street backing, with Jefferies initiating coverage at "buy" and setting a price target of $26.25. That call lands at a pivotal moment: the company is simultaneously winding down its Australian listing, executing a $300 million share repurchase, and converting its flagship South Korean mine from a development project into a revenue-generating operation.

The stock, which trades at €15.23 in Frankfurt, sits roughly 19% above its 200-day moving average — a reflection of the momentum that has built behind the name over recent months. Jefferies' endorsement, which implies meaningful upside from current levels, is anchored in Almonty's role as a cornerstone of Western supply chains for tungsten, a metal whose strategic importance has grown as China dominates global production.

Australian Exit Streamlines the Register

The Jefferies initiation coincides with the formal removal of Almonty's CHESS Depositary Interests from the Australian Securities Exchange, a process that began when trading in those instruments was suspended on August 28. The company has been clear that its Nasdaq listing under the ticker ALM and its Frankfurt listing under ALI1 are unaffected.

The delisting consolidates liquidity into two primary venues rather than three, simplifying the trading structure for investors even as it narrows the company's direct shareholder base in Australia. The timing of the analyst endorsement — arriving just as the ASX chapter closes — looks set to sharpen international focus on the remaining listings.

Buyback Backed by a Fortified Balance Sheet

The positive analyst view lands against the backdrop of a repurchase program announced August 17 and activated August 24. The board authorized the buyback of up to 14.4 million common shares — roughly 5% of issued capital — over a 36-month window running to August 2029. Management framed the decision as a response to the gap between the share price and the underlying value of the company's tungsten assets. Since the program was unveiled, the stock has added 7.8%.

What makes the buyback notable is the financial firepower behind it. In June, Almonty closed an oversubscribed convertible bond offering of $800 million, carrying a 2.25% coupon and maturing in 2031. That injection lifted cash balances from C$268.4 million at the end of 2025 to C$1.2 billion by June 30, 2026 — a position that funds the repurchase comfortably without impeding Sangdong's development trajectory.

Institutional interest is also building. Bank of America recently increased its stake in the company, according to a regulatory filing, adding to a picture of growing conviction among large market participants.

Sangdong Transforms the Income Statement

The second-quarter numbers illustrate just how far the operational transition has progressed. Revenue for Q2 2026 came in at C$43.0 million, a 498% surge from the C$7.2 million reported in the same period a year earlier. Net income swung to C$181.8 million from a loss of C$58.2 million, while the mining operation delivered a 60.7% operating margin on revenue.

The catalyst was the production start at Sangdong in early July, when Almonty began feeding the ore processing plant from an inventory of roughly 139,700 tonnes of run-of-mine material. That marked the formal shift from development phase to earnings phase. The operational half-year result flipped accordingly, from a cash outflow of C$14.9 million in the prior year to an inflow of C$31.6 million.

CEO Lewis Black, writing in a mid-August newsletter, pointed to structural supply tightness in the tungsten market — driven by strategic stockpiling by individual states, bottlenecks in semiconductor manufacturing, and a widening gap between announced projects and actual output. The picture is rounded out by the offtake agreement extension with Global Tungsten & Powders LLC signed in July, which secures higher volumes and improved pricing terms over a considerably longer horizon.

A Stock in Transition

Market performance has been characteristically volatile through this period of transformation. The shares closed Tuesday at €15.07, down 1.6% on the day, yet they remain up 38% over the past 30 days and have nearly doubled since the start of the year. The current price sits roughly 27% below the 52-week high of €20.61 reached in April.

Jefferies' $26.25 target suggests the re-rating story has further to run, in the analysts' view. With Sangdong now generating cash, a buyback underway, and a balance sheet flush with proceeds from the convertible, Almonty enters a phase where the operational and financial narratives are finally aligned — even as the tungsten market's geopolitical undertones continue to lend the stock an extra layer of strategic relevance.