Safe Bulkers, Inc. (NYSE:SB) Short Interest Update

Safe Bulkers, Inc. (NYSE:SB) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest in the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,640,000 shares, a decrease of 14.6% from the August 31st total of 1,920,000 shares. Currently, 2.8% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 547,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.0 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Safe Bulkers

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise grew its stake in shares of Safe Bulkers by 14.4% in the second quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise now owns 16,863 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $98,000 after acquiring an additional 2,129 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in Safe Bulkers by 26.1% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 19,945 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $99,000 after purchasing an additional 4,129 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Safe Bulkers during the 2nd quarter worth about $104,000. Counterpoint Mutual Funds LLC acquired a new stake in Safe Bulkers in the 1st quarter valued at about $135,000. Finally, Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC boosted its stake in shares of Safe Bulkers by 27.9% in the 2nd quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC now owns 25,567 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $149,000 after buying an additional 5,572 shares during the period. 21.69% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Safe Bulkers Price Performance

Shares of Safe Bulkers stock traded down $0.02 on Friday, reaching $5.16. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 464,575 shares, compared to its average volume of 475,826. Safe Bulkers has a 52-week low of $3.10 and a 52-week high of $6.33. The company has a market capitalization of $550.93 million, a P/E ratio of 7.59 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a quick ratio of 2.11, a current ratio of 2.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $4.97 and a 200-day moving average price of $5.25.

Safe Bulkers (NYSE:SB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 29th. The shipping company reported $0.17 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.18 by ($0.01). Safe Bulkers had a return on equity of 10.78% and a net margin of 31.11%. The business had revenue of $78.55 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $69.16 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.12 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Safe Bulkers will post 0.86 EPS for the current year.

Safe Bulkers Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 5th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 21st were issued a $0.05 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 21st. This represents a $0.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.88%. Safe Bulkers’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.41%.

Safe Bulkers Company Profile

Safe Bulkers, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides marine drybulk transportation services. It owns and operates drybulk vessels for transporting bulk cargoes primarily coal, grain, and iron ore. The company has a fleet of 47 drybulk vessels having an aggregate carrying capacity of 4,719,600 deadweight tons.