Star Bulk Carriers Corp. (NASDAQ:SBLK) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.60

Star Bulk Carriers Corp. (NASDAQ:SBLK) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, November 19th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 5th will be given a dividend of 0.60 per share by the shipping company on Wednesday, December 18th. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 12.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 5th.

Star Bulk Carriers has increased its dividend by an average of 215.5% per year over the last three years. Star Bulk Carriers has a payout ratio of 73.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Star Bulk Carriers to earn $3.20 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 87.5%.

Star Bulk Carriers Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ SBLK traded down $0.24 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $18.73. 2,358,270 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,602,274. Star Bulk Carriers has a 12-month low of $18.52 and a 12-month high of $27.47. The firm has a market cap of $1.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.41 and a beta of 1.00. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $20.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $22.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.51.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on Star Bulk Carriers in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $26.00 target price for the company. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded Star Bulk Carriers from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $21.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. DNB Markets raised shares of Star Bulk Carriers from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $19.30 to $20.20 in a research report on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $28.00 price target on shares of Star Bulk Carriers in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Star Bulk Carriers from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $23.80.

About Star Bulk Carriers

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.