Star Bulk Carriers Corp. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.09 (NASDAQ:SBLK)

Star Bulk Carriers Corp. (NASDAQ:SBLK) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 18th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 4th will be given a dividend of 0.09 per share by the shipping company on Tuesday, March 18th. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.20%.

Star Bulk Carriers has raised its dividend by an average of 3.6% annually over the last three years. Star Bulk Carriers has a dividend payout ratio of 74.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Star Bulk Carriers to earn $1.93 per share next year, which means the company may not be able to cover its $2.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 124.4%.

Star Bulk Carriers Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ SBLK traded up $0.29 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $16.39. 3,313,583 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,765,247. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.54 and a beta of 0.95. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $15.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $18.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a current ratio of 1.69. Star Bulk Carriers has a 52 week low of $14.30 and a 52 week high of $27.47.

Star Bulk Carriers (NASDAQ:SBLK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The shipping company reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.42 by ($0.08). Star Bulk Carriers had a return on equity of 14.82% and a net margin of 24.75%. Sell-side analysts predict that Star Bulk Carriers will post 2.63 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SBLK has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $28.00 price objective on shares of Star Bulk Carriers in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. DNB Markets upgraded Star Bulk Carriers from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $19.30 to $20.20 in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. StockNews.com downgraded Star Bulk Carriers from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut Star Bulk Carriers from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $30.00 to $21.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Star Bulk Carriers currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” 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.