Genco Shipping & Trading Limited (NYSE:GNK) Short Interest Update

Genco Shipping & Trading Limited (NYSE:GNK) was the recipient of a significant drop in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 775,500 shares, a drop of 6.7% from the December 15th total of 830,900 shares. Approximately 1.9% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 462,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.7 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GNK has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $25.00 target price on shares of Genco Shipping & Trading in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com cut shares of Genco Shipping & Trading from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus downgraded shares of Genco Shipping & Trading from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $26.00 to $17.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Genco Shipping & Trading presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $24.20.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of GNK. Inspire Investing LLC boosted its stake in Genco Shipping & Trading by 35.2% in the fourth quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 28,633 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $399,000 after acquiring an additional 7,457 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its stake in Genco Shipping & Trading by 11.8% during the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 29,881 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $417,000 after buying an additional 3,142 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in Genco Shipping & Trading by 830.3% during the 4th quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 11,033 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $154,000 after buying an additional 9,847 shares in the last quarter. Accurate Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Genco Shipping & Trading by 92.8% in the fourth quarter. Accurate Wealth Management LLC now owns 66,253 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $960,000 after buying an additional 31,890 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in Genco Shipping & Trading by 26.8% in the fourth quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 14,190 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $198,000 after acquiring an additional 3,000 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 58.62% of the company’s stock.

Genco Shipping & Trading Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of GNK traded up $0.13 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $14.40. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 450,764 shares, compared to its average volume of 366,285. The company’s 50-day moving average is $15.24 and its 200-day moving average is $17.07. The company has a current ratio of 3.09, a quick ratio of 2.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $615.50 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.17, a PEG ratio of 0.24 and a beta of 0.99. Genco Shipping & Trading has a 52-week low of $13.51 and a 52-week high of $23.43.

Genco Shipping & Trading (NYSE:GNK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The shipping company reported $0.41 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.41. Genco Shipping & Trading had a return on equity of 8.46% and a net margin of 15.63%. The firm had revenue of $99.33 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.02 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.09) EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Genco Shipping & Trading will post 1.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Genco Shipping & Trading Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 18th were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 11.11%. This is a positive change from Genco Shipping & Trading’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 18th. Genco Shipping & Trading’s dividend payout ratio is presently 101.91%.

About Genco Shipping & Trading

Genco Shipping & Trading Ltd. is an international ship owning company, which engages in the transportation of iron ore, coal, grain, steel products, and other drybulk cargoes. The company was founded on September 27, 2004 and is headquartered in New York, NY.