Jefferies Financial Group Reaffirms “Buy” Rating for Safe Bulkers (NYSE:SB)

Safe Bulkers (NYSE:SB)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by investment analysts at Jefferies Financial Group in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $6.00 price target on the shipping company’s stock. Jefferies Financial Group’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 57.27% from the company’s current price.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com cut 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 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 27th.

Safe Bulkers Trading Up 3.4 %

Shares of SB stock opened at $3.82 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $3.55 and its 200-day moving average price is $4.21. Safe Bulkers has a twelve month low of $3.31 and a twelve month high of $6.33. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The stock has a market cap of $407.37 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.60 and a beta of 0.90.

Safe Bulkers (NYSE:SB) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The shipping company reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $69.16 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $71.90 million. As a group, equities analysts predict that Safe Bulkers will post 0.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Safe Bulkers

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of SB. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC purchased a new stake in Safe Bulkers during the third quarter worth about $1,480,000. Squarepoint Ops LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Safe Bulkers during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,000,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in shares of Safe Bulkers by 16.7% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,796,424 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $6,413,000 after buying an additional 257,136 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Safe Bulkers during the fourth quarter worth approximately $888,000. Finally, Mariner LLC increased its stake in shares of Safe Bulkers by 148.6% during the fourth quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 391,015 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $1,396,000 after buying an additional 233,743 shares during the period. 21.69% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.