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

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

Star Bulk Carriers has increased its dividend by an average of 3.6% annually over the last three years. Star Bulk Carriers has a dividend payout ratio of 73.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 Up 1.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ SBLK opened at $16.39 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a current ratio of 1.69. The company has a market capitalization of $1.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.54 and a beta of 0.95. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $15.17 and its 200-day moving average price is $18.55. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The shipping company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by ($0.08). Star Bulk Carriers had a net margin of 24.75% and a return on equity of 14.82%. Equities analysts forecast that Star Bulk Carriers will post 2.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SBLK has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus cut Star Bulk Carriers from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price target 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 increased their target price for the stock from $19.30 to $20.20 in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Star Bulk Carriers from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on shares of Star Bulk Carriers from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $22.05.

Star Bulk Carriers Company Profile

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.