New York-listed Genco Shipping & Trading dished out a fatter dividend under a new formula while producing profitable third-quarter results that were exactly in line with analyst expectations.
The dry bulk shipowner is paying out $0.40 per share as the first distribution since it changed the calculation for what funds may be excluded from the dividend kitty.
Dry-docking change
Capital expenditures for vessel dry-dockings formerly were excluded and now are not. This increased the payout by $0.27 per share.
New York-headquartered Genco is guiding to slightly weaker yet still profit-making time charter equivalent earnings in the current quarter.
For the quarter past, Genco delivered adjusted net income of $18.1m or $0.41 per share – precisely matching the Wall Street consensus.
That means Genco was able to flip an adjusted net loss of $3.9m or $0.09 per share in the same quarter a year earlier.
Bottom-line net income amounted to $_21.5m, compared to $19.9m in the same period of 2023.
Revenue of $99.3m jumped up from the $83.4m recorded in the third quarter of 2023.
Adjusted Ebitda of $36.9m fell just short of analysts’ $37.2m bet.
“We enhanced our dividend policy to increase cash distributions to shareholders, resulting in an 18% increase in our third quarter dividend over the prior quarter,” said chief executive John Wobensmith in the earnings report.
“Returning significant capital to shareholders remains a top priority for management and we have now declared 21 consecutive dividends, representing $6.315 per share, or ~40% of our current share price.”
The fleet’s average TCE of $19,260 per day was well up on $12,082 for the same period of 2023.
The blended TCE rate so far in the current quarter is $18,786 per day with 65% of days booked.
The breaks into $25,962 for capesizes with 59% fixed, and $14,851 for ultramaxes and supramaxes with 68% booked.
Genco’s fleet of 42 includes 16 capesizes, 15 ultramaxes and 11 supramaxes. The average age is 11.9 years.
This includes the previously announced acquisition of the 180,000-dwt Genco Intrepid (built 2016, the third capesize acquired in the last 12 months.
“Drawing on our leading commercial platform, we increased TCE 59% year-over-year,” Wobensmith said.
“As we look to the end of the year, dry-bulk fundamentals remain positive, driven by ongoing capacity constraints, firm commodity demand and the beginning of fiscal and monetary easy cycles in key global economies.”
