Safe Bulkers has posted 79% growth in second-quarter profit, reaping the benefits of better dry cargo markets.
The results came in just shy of analyst expectations, as revenue beat Wall Street forecasts.
The Polys Hajioannou-led bulker owner logged $27.6m in net income, up from $15.4m in the same quarter of 2023.
With non-cash items that are typically excluded by analysts factored out, the bottom-line result translated into adjusted earnings per share of $0.17 — two pennies below the $0.19 bet by the three analysts polled by Yahoo Finance.
Revenue jumped to $78.5m, an 11% improvement on the same period of last year.
That is more than analysts were expecting, with the average estimate at $71.4m.
The Greece and Cyprus-based, New York-listed shipowner kept its dividend stable at $0.05 per share.
“Our strong liquidity and comfortable leverage enable us to be flexible with our capital allocation, remain focused on long-term value creation and at the same time reward our shareholders with a dividend of five cents per share of common stock,” president Loukas Barmparis said.
In a stronger market, Safe Bulkers reported a time charter equivalent rate of just under $18,700 per day, better than the nearly $17,300 per day in the second quarter of 2023.
Daily operating expenses dipped to $6,254 per day, from $6,477 per day a year earlier.
The quarterly earnings added to Safe Bulkers’ stronger first half: net income rose to $52.9m from $34.7m in the opening six months of 2023.
The company, which has 45 bulkers, finished the quarter with $81.6m in cash and $491m in debt.
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