Eagle Bulk Shipping's bottom line fell into the red due to a challenging freight environmentduring this year's first half.
The Gary Vogel-led bulker owner posted a $6m loss for the second quarter versus a $3.45m profit a year ago.
Loss per share came in at $0.08, meeting analysts consensus, but falling below earnings per share of $0.05 during the same three-month period in 2018.
The red ink is no surprise to the market with Eagle Bulk guiding for a loss of $5.8m and $6.2m in a preview of results revealed alongside a notes offering and six-ship purchase last week.
"Our results for the second quarter are reflective of the challenging freight environment in the first half of the year," chief executive Gary Vogel said in a statement.
"Despite the headwinds, we continued to deliver strong TCE [time charter equivalent] outperformance, relative to the adjusted benchmark Baltic Supramax Index, of nearly $2,000 in the second quarter, marking our 10th consecutive quarter of outperformance."
Analysts at Arctic Securities said the numbers were in line with forecasts but pre-bookings, with 57% of its available days covered at $10,300 for the third quarter, were soft.
“However, we note that rates have been trending higher, and expect the company to fix the remaining days at a higher level,” they added.
The company last week announced plans to issue $115m in debt to buy six modern ultramaxes.
TradeWinds has since uncovered four of the vessels are being purchased from private equity seller Nautical Bulk Holdings.
"Our recently announced bond issuance and pending acquisition of six modern ultramax vessels, four of which will be delivered to us with scrubbers, is an important step for Eagle, as we continue to renew and grow our fleet with larger, more efficient vessels," he said in the earnings report.
"Coupled with our existing scrubber initiative, we believe these acquisitions increase our leverage to the opportunities IMO 2020 will present."
Eagle Bulk's shares, which trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol EGLE, fell as much as 20% immediately following the notes offer, but Deutsche Bank maintains a buy rating.
"While EGLE shares have come under pressure over the last week following the convertible note offering, the company remains well positioned with a healthy balance sheet and accommodative midsized bulker markets where spot rates have firmed to multi-year highs," analyst Amit Mehrotra wrote in a client's note.
