Eagle Bulk's results have revisited the red side of the ledger amid higher operating expenses and lower revenue amid Covid-19 overhang.
The Gary Vogel-led owner of supramaxes and ultramaxes posted a net loss of $3.53m for the first quarter versus $29,483 in earnings for the same period last year.
That translated into a loss per share of $0.05, beating analyst consensus by $0.05 but falling short of last year's breakeven result of $0.00.
Revenue came in at $74.4m, down $3m from the year-ago figure due to less available days amid lower chartered-in activity, offset by more owned days from six ships bought in 2019.
“Global economic disruption brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic has led to a massive reduction of global trade and cargo flows," chief executive Vogel said.
Operating expenses totalled $76.7m, up from $71.2m from the same timeframe in 2019.
The company kept its trading momentum into the quarter and the market by 62% with a timecharter equivalent average of $10,000 per day, despite a 40% drop in the Baltic Exchange Supramax Index, he said.
"We were able to achieve this result by successfully executing on our active management approach to trading and by benefiting from operating scrubbers on the majority of our fleet," he said.
"While the short-term dynamics are challenging, we believe Eagle is well-positioned to navigate through this uncertain period given the quality of our team, our active owner-operator model, and our solid balance sheet.
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Cleaves Securities analyst Joakim Hannisdahl reiterated a buy rating on Eagle Bulk shares with an optimistic outlook for bulkers.
“We forecast improvements for dry bulk shipping for the remainder of the year and beyond as China is returning to work, implementing economic stimuli and restocking inventories against a very low fleet growth,” he wrote in a client note.
