Analysts Set Genco Shipping & Trading Limited (NYSE:GNK) Price Target at $24.20

Shares of Genco Shipping & Trading Limited (NYSE:GNK) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the five ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $24.20.

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. StockNews.com downgraded Genco Shipping & Trading from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded shares of Genco Shipping & Trading from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $26.00 to $17.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $25.00 price objective on shares of Genco Shipping & Trading in a report on Thursday, November 7th.

Institutional Trading of Genco Shipping & Trading

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Genco Shipping & Trading by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,869,297 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $61,145,000 after acquiring an additional 33,150 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Genco Shipping & Trading by 1.0% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,190,467 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $23,214,000 after acquiring an additional 12,001 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Genco Shipping & Trading by 16.4% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,096,741 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $23,372,000 after acquiring an additional 154,339 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its stake in Genco Shipping & Trading by 66.6% during the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,050,030 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $22,376,000 after purchasing an additional 419,730 shares during the period. Finally, Townsend & Associates Inc lifted its holdings in Genco Shipping & Trading by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Townsend & Associates Inc now owns 1,048,858 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $20,453,000 after purchasing an additional 27,783 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 58.62% of the company’s stock.

Genco Shipping & Trading Stock Performance

Shares of Genco Shipping & Trading stock opened at $14.40 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $615.53 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.17, a PEG ratio of 0.24 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 3.09 and a quick ratio of 2.49. Genco Shipping & Trading has a 1 year low of $13.51 and a 1 year high of $23.43. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $15.24 and its 200 day moving average is $17.14.

Genco Shipping & Trading (NYSE:GNK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The shipping company reported $0.41 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41. The company had revenue of $99.33 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.02 million. Genco Shipping & Trading had a net margin of 15.63% and a return on equity of 8.46%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.09) EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Genco Shipping & Trading will post 1.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Genco Shipping & Trading Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 25th. Investors of record on Monday, November 18th were issued a $0.40 dividend. This is a boost from Genco Shipping & Trading’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 11.11%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 18th. Genco Shipping & Trading’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 101.91%.

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.