Safe Bulkers, Inc. (NYSE:SB) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.05

Safe Bulkers, Inc. (NYSE:SB - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 18th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a dividend of 0.05 per share by the shipping company on Friday, March 21st. This represents a $0.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd.

Safe Bulkers has a payout ratio of 22.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Safe Bulkers to earn $0.58 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.20 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 34.5%.

Safe Bulkers Price Performance

SB traded down $0.07 during trading on Friday, reaching $3.75. The company's stock had a trading volume of 799,851 shares, compared to its average volume of 667,826. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $3.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $4.21. Safe Bulkers has a 1 year low of $3.31 and a 1 year high of $6.33. The company has a market cap of $399.89 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 0.90.

Safe Bulkers (NYSE:SB - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The shipping company reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.14 by $0.01. Safe Bulkers had a net margin of 31.65% and a return on equity of 10.12%. The business had revenue of $69.16 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $71.90 million. As a group, analysts anticipate that Safe Bulkers will post 0.62 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SB has been the topic of several analyst reports. StockNews.com lowered shares of Safe Bulkers from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. DNB Markets raised shares of Safe Bulkers from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $4.20 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $6.00 price target on shares of Safe Bulkers in a research report on Wednesday.

About Safe Bulkers

Safe Bulkers, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides marine drybulk transportation services. It owns and operates drybulk vessels for transporting bulk cargoes primarily coal, grain, and iron ore. The company has a fleet of 47 drybulk vessels having an aggregate carrying capacity of 4,719,600 deadweight tons.