Navellier & Associates Inc. Buys New Holdings in Safe Bulkers, Inc $SB

Navellier & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Safe Bulkers, Inc (NYSE:SB) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 145,586 shares of the shipping company’s stock, valued at approximately $919,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of SB. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its stake in Safe Bulkers by 77.7% in the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 4,917 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 2,150 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Safe Bulkers by 5.9% during the 2nd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 43,299 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $156,000 after acquiring an additional 2,423 shares during the period. DGS Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Safe Bulkers by 17.3% during the 1st quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 20,918 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $132,000 after acquiring an additional 3,079 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Safe Bulkers by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 765,593 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $3,399,000 after acquiring an additional 4,300 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Safe Bulkers by 4.7% during the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 104,626 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $504,000 after acquiring an additional 4,651 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 21.69% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Wall Street Zen cut Safe Bulkers from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Safe Bulkers currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $6.00.

Safe Bulkers Stock Performance

Shares of SB stock opened at $8.55 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $870.65 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.96 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.00. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $7.40 and a 200 day simple moving average of $6.81. Safe Bulkers, Inc has a 52 week low of $4.14 and a 52 week high of $8.76.

Safe Bulkers (NYSE:SB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The shipping company reported $0.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $87.47 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $77.50 million. Safe Bulkers had a net margin of 28.29% and a return on equity of 9.63%.

Safe Bulkers Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 13th were given a $0.075 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 13th. This is a positive change from Safe Bulkers’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.5%. Safe Bulkers’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 38.46%.

Safe Bulkers Profile

Safe Bulkers Inc (NYSE: SB) is a dry bulk shipping company engaged in the ocean transport of commodities such as iron ore, coal, grain, and fertilizers. The company operates a modern fleet of vessels, including Panamax, Supramax and Kamsarmax bulk carriers, designed to serve a variety of trade routes and cargo types. Safe Bulkers’ fleet is employed under both time charter and voyage charter arrangements, offering flexibility to respond to market demand and optimize vessel utilization.

Founded in 2008, Safe Bulkers began trading its shares on the New York Stock Exchange in the same year, establishing itself as a publicly listed provider of dry bulk transportation services.