Genco Shipping & Trading Limited (NYSE:GNK) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.30

Genco Shipping & Trading Limited (NYSE:GNK) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 19th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be paid a dividend of 0.30 per share by the shipping company on Tuesday, March 18th. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 11th.

Genco Shipping & Trading has increased its dividend by an average of 69.9% per year over the last three years. Genco Shipping & Trading has a dividend payout ratio of 97.6% meaning its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings decline. Analysts expect Genco Shipping & Trading to earn $0.48 per share next year, which means the company may not be able to cover its $1.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 333.3%.

Genco Shipping & Trading Stock Performance

Shares of GNK traded up $0.07 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $14.69. 1,252,615 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 454,961. The company has a quick ratio of 2.49, a current ratio of 3.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. Genco Shipping & Trading has a twelve month low of $13.51 and a twelve month high of $23.43. The company has a market cap of $627.93 million, a P/E ratio of 9.35, a PEG ratio of 5.69 and a beta of 0.97. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $14.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $16.16.

Genco Shipping & Trading (NYSE:GNK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The shipping company reported $0.29 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by ($0.27). Genco Shipping & Trading had a return on equity of 8.46% and a net margin of 15.63%. The company had revenue of $67.95 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $67.36 million. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Genco Shipping & Trading will post 1.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have commented on GNK shares. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded Genco Shipping & Trading from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $26.00 to $17.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com downgraded Genco Shipping & Trading from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on Genco Shipping & Trading from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $23.00.

Genco Shipping & Trading Company Profile

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.