BlackRock Fund Advisors recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Safe Bulkers Inc. (NYSE:SB). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Industrials company by 6.26% to 3.49 million shares with purchase of 0.21 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 2.94% valued currently at $13.09 million. In addition, Goldman Sachs Asset Management LP raised its holdings by 0.12 million to 2.28 million shares.
With over 1.7 million Safe Bulkers Inc. (SB) shares trading Monday and a closing price of $3.53 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $6.01 million. The shares have shown a positive half year performance of 8.28% and its price on 03/13/23 lost nearly -1.40%. Currently, there are 118.92M common shares owned by the public and among those 70.49M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 3 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for SB have a consensus price objective of $4.15. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $6.60 and a low of $2.85. The average price target is 14.94% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -23.86% over that period. But an upside of 46.52% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $3.00.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Safe Bulkers Inc. are iShares Russell 2000 ETF, Goldman Sachs Small Cap Value Ins, and TIAA-CREF Quant Small Cap Equity. iShares Russell 2000 ETF owns 1.6 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $5.99 million. The company sold 5058.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 1.34% of the shares outstanding. Goldman Sachs Small Cap Value Ins bought 0.19 million shares to see its total holdings expand to 1.11 million shares valued at over $4.16 million and representing 0.93% of the shares outstanding. TIAA-CREF Quant Small Cap Equity sold 8400.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 0.75 million shares at a value of $2.81 million. TIAA-CREF Quant Small Cap Equity now owns shares totaling to 0.63% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Safe Bulkers Inc. (NYSE: SB) opened at $3.52, down -$0.06 from a prior closing price of $3.58. However, the script later moved the day high at 3.5950, down -1.40%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -3.55% and 30.26% over the past three months. SB shares are trading 21.31% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -21.90% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $2.35 and touched a high of $5.12 over the same period. SB has an average intraday trading volume of 830.25K shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by 0.27%, 8.13%, and 7.16% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Safe Bulkers Inc. (NYSE: SB) shares accounts for 27.30% of the company’s 118.92M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 10.54%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 14.26% and — respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $416.12M and a beta (3y monthly) value of 0.90. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 2.61, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $1.35. The company has a PEG of 0.19 and a Quick Ratio of 1.50 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 0.54. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 3.04% over the week and 3.37% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Safe Bulkers Inc. (SB) will achieve an EPS of $0.25 for the current quarter, $0.26 for the next quarter and $1 for 2023. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $0.19 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $0.31. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $0.39 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to decrease by -5.70%, and 14.05% over the next financial year. EPS should shrink at an annualized rate of 14.00% over the next five years, compared to 27.60% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 3 brokerage firm advisors rate Safe Bulkers Inc. (SB) as a “Hold” at a consensus score of 3.00. Specifically, 1 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 1 of the 3 advise that investors “hold,” and 1 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the SB, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. Jefferies stated their Hold rating for the stock in a research note on September 26, 2022, with the firm’s price target at $5-$4. Jefferies coverage for the Safe Bulkers Inc. (SB) stock in a research note released on July 21, 2022 offered a Buy rating with a price target of $5. Jefferies was of a view on April 27, 2022 that the stock is Hold, while H.C. Wainwright gave the stock Buy rating on September 13, 2021, issuing a price target of $6.50. Stifel on their part issued Buy rating on February 01, 2021.
