Safe Bulkers, Inc. (NYSE:SB) to Issue $0.05 Quarterly Dividend

Safe Bulkers, Inc. (NYSE:SB) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 19th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a dividend of 0.05 per share by the shipping company on Friday, March 21st. This represents a $0.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.43%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd.

Safe Bulkers has a payout ratio of 22.7% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Safe Bulkers to earn $0.63 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.20 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 31.7%.

Safe Bulkers Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE SB traded down $0.01 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $3.69. The stock had a trading volume of 742,247 shares, compared to its average volume of 655,771. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $3.56 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $4.23. Safe Bulkers has a one year low of $3.31 and a one year high of $6.33. The stock has a market cap of $393.48 million, a PE ratio of 4.09 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.34.

Safe Bulkers (NYSE:SB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The shipping company reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.14 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $69.16 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $71.90 million. Safe Bulkers had a net margin of 33.17% and a return on equity of 11.58%. On average, research analysts forecast that Safe Bulkers will post 0.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on SB. DNB Markets upgraded Safe Bulkers from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $4.20 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 27th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Safe Bulkers from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $6.00 target price on shares of Safe Bulkers in a research report on Wednesday.

About Safe Bulkers

Safe Bulkers, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides marine drybulk transportation services. It owns and operates drybulk vessels for transporting bulk cargoes primarily coal, grain, and iron ore. The company has a fleet of 47 drybulk vessels having an aggregate carrying capacity of 4,719,600 deadweight tons.