Safe Bulkers reported growth in third-quarter earnings and moved some of its fleet to the spot market.
The New York-listed shipowner, led by Polys Hajioannou, reported net income of $25.1m, a jump from $15m a year earlier.
Adjusted net income, which excludes items that are not factored into analyst estimates, grew to $19m from $11.1m.
That translated into $0.16 in adjusted earnings per share, which was exactly as two analysts polled by Yahoo News predicted.
President Loukas Barmparis described it as a “good quarter” compared with a year earlier.
“However, the charter market is gradually softening, along with continuing geopolitical uncertainties,” he said.
“We remained focused on capital allocation towards our newbuilds programme, on improving our operational efficiency and on rewarding our shareholders with a dividend of five cents per share of common stock.”
Cyprus and Greece-based Safe Bulkers’ net revenue grew to $75.9m, up from $64.7m a year earlier.
The figure was driven by a jump in time charter equivalent rate to $17,100 per day per vessel, an improvement on $14,900 per day a year earlier.
Vessel operating expenses dipped to $5,311 per day, from $5,357 per day.
The company owns 46 bulkers from panamax to capesize, as well as seven kamsarmaxes on order.
Safe Bulkers reported that, as of the start of November, it had 15 vessels in the spot market, up from eight in its second-quarter report.
By contrast, its time-chartered fleet fell to 32 ships, down from 38 in its previous earnings report in July. All eight of its capesizes are in the period market, rather than the volatile spot market for that segment.
The latest results lifted nine-month net income to $78m, which was better than the $49.7m earned in the first three quarters of last year.
Safe Bulkers finished the quarter with $92.6m in cash and total debt of nearly $490m.
