Star Bulk Carriers (NASDAQ:SBLK) Posts Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.08 EPS

Star Bulk Carriers (NASDAQ:SBLK) announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday. The shipping company reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by ($0.08), Zacks reports. The business had revenue of $308.92 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $230.91 million. Star Bulk Carriers had a return on equity of 12.85% and a net margin of 24.08%.

Star Bulk Carriers Stock Performance

Shares of SBLK stock opened at $14.96 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $1.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.21 and a beta of 0.95. The business has a 50 day moving average of $15.18 and a two-hundred day moving average of $18.52. Star Bulk Carriers has a 52 week low of $14.30 and a 52 week high of $27.47. The company has a quick ratio of 1.50, a current ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44.

Star Bulk Carriers Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 4th will be issued a $0.09 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 4th. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.41%. Star Bulk Carriers’s dividend payout ratio is currently 83.62%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded shares of Star Bulk Carriers from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $30.00 to $21.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of Star Bulk Carriers from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. DNB Markets upgraded Star Bulk Carriers from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their target price for the company from $19.30 to $20.20 in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, StockNews.com cut Star Bulk Carriers from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $22.05.

Star Bulk Carriers Company Profile

Star Bulk Carriers Corp., a shipping company, engages in the ocean transportation of dry bulk cargoes worldwide. Its vessels transport a range of bulk commodities, including iron ores, minerals and grains, bauxite, fertilizers, and steel products. As of December 31, 2023, the company owned a fleet of 116 dry bulk vessels with combined carrying capacity of 13.1 million deadweight tonnage (dwt) consisting of Newcastlemax, Capesize, Post Panamax, Kamsarmax, Panamax, Ultramax, and Supramax vessels with carrying capacities between 53,489 dwt and 209,537 dwt.