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 given a dividend of 0.09 per share by the shipping company on Tuesday, March 18th. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.20%.

Star Bulk Carriers has increased its dividend by an average of 3.6% per year 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 %

NASDAQ SBLK opened at $16.39 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $15.17 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $18.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.38 billion, a PE ratio of 5.54 and a beta of 0.95. Star Bulk Carriers has a fifty-two week low of $14.30 and a fifty-two week high of $27.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 1.69 and a quick ratio of 1.50.

Star Bulk Carriers (NASDAQ:SBLK) last announced 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%. Equities analysts expect that Star Bulk Carriers will post 2.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on SBLK shares. StockNews.com cut shares of Star Bulk Carriers from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. DNB Markets upgraded shares of Star Bulk Carriers from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $19.30 to $20.20 in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Stifel Nicolaus lowered Star Bulk Carriers from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $21.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Star Bulk Carriers from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently 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.