Bleakley Financial Group LLC Takes Position in Safe Bulkers, Inc. (NYSE:SB)

Bleakley Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Safe Bulkers, Inc. (NYSE:SB) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 21,520 shares of the shipping company’s stock, valued at approximately $85,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its stake in Safe Bulkers by 8.7% during the 3rd quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 122,158 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $396,000 after acquiring an additional 9,826 shares in the last quarter. Welch Group LLC lifted its position in Safe Bulkers by 30.0% in the 4th quarter. Welch Group LLC now owns 13,000 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 3,000 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Safe Bulkers by 47.8% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 43,320 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $140,000 after buying an additional 14,001 shares during the period. Jump Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Safe Bulkers during the 3rd quarter valued at $41,000. Finally, Mraz Amerine & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Safe Bulkers in the third quarter worth $43,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 21.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Safe Bulkers from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $4.00 to $6.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 27th.

Safe Bulkers Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:SB opened at $4.73 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $527.92 million, a P/E ratio of 7.63 and a beta of 1.02. The business has a 50-day moving average of $4.70 and a two-hundred day moving average of $4.03. Safe Bulkers, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $2.97 and a fifty-two week high of $5.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 2.63 and a quick ratio of 2.33.

Safe Bulkers (NYSE:SB) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The shipping company reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.10. Safe Bulkers had a return on equity of 9.05% and a net margin of 27.20%. The firm had revenue of $82.29 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.70 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.29 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Safe Bulkers, Inc. will post 0.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Safe Bulkers Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 19th. Investors of record on Friday, March 1st were paid a $0.05 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $0.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.23%. Safe Bulkers’s payout ratio is presently 32.26%.

Safe Bulkers 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.