Safe Bulkers, Inc. (SB) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.05 on March 21st

Safe Bulkers, Inc. (NYSE:SB) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 18th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid 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 5.35%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd.

Safe Bulkers has a payout ratio of 22.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Safe Bulkers to earn $0.58 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 34.5%.

Safe Bulkers Stock Performance

Shares of SB opened at $3.74 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $393.30 million, a PE ratio of 4.50 and a beta of 0.90. Safe Bulkers has a 1 year low of $3.31 and a 1 year high of $6.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 1.91 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $3.58 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $4.17.

Safe Bulkers (NYSE:SB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The shipping company reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.14 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $69.16 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $71.90 million. Safe Bulkers had a return on equity of 10.04% and a net margin of 31.65%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Safe Bulkers will post 0.62 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on SB. Loop Capital set a $4.20 price target on Safe Bulkers in a research report on Monday, January 27th. StockNews.com cut Safe Bulkers from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $6.00 price target on shares of Safe Bulkers in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, DNB Markets upgraded Safe Bulkers from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $4.20 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, January 27th.

Safe Bulkers Company Profile

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.