Jefferies Financial Group Increases Costamare (NYSE:CMRE) Price Target to $13.00

Costamare (NYSE:CMRE) had its price target increased by Jefferies Financial Group from $12.00 to $13.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a hold rating on the shipping company’s stock.

CMRE has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Costamare from $12.00 to $14.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Costamare from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, May 21st.

Costamare Trading Down 2.8 %

Shares of CMRE opened at $13.63 on Wednesday. Costamare has a 52-week low of $8.54 and a 52-week high of $17.58. The company has a quick ratio of 1.81, a current ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $15.49 and its two-hundred day moving average is $13.00. The stock has a market cap of $1.60 billion, a PE ratio of 5.28 and a beta of 1.38.

Costamare (NYSE:CMRE) last announced its earnings results on Friday, May 10th. The shipping company reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $475.43 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $383.32 million. Costamare had a net margin of 19.63% and a return on equity of 13.63%. Research analysts forecast that Costamare will post 3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Costamare Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, August 6th. Investors of record on Friday, July 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.115 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 19th. This represents a $0.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.37%. Costamare’s payout ratio is 17.83%.

Institutional Trading of Costamare

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in CMRE. Raymond James & Associates purchased a new stake in shares of Costamare during the fourth quarter worth approximately $135,000. Ballentine Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Costamare during the fourth quarter worth approximately $114,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in shares of Costamare by 63.1% during the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 39,037 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $406,000 after buying an additional 15,099 shares during the period. Kendall Capital Management increased its stake in shares of Costamare by 25.0% during the fourth quarter. Kendall Capital Management now owns 214,614 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $2,234,000 after buying an additional 42,902 shares during the period. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund increased its stake in shares of Costamare by 7.9% during the fourth quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 187,623 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $1,953,000 after buying an additional 13,744 shares during the period. 58.08% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Costamare