Genco Shipping & Trading’s (GNK) Buy Rating Reiterated at Jefferies Financial Group

Jefferies Financial Group reiterated their buy rating on shares of Genco Shipping & Trading (NYSE:GNK) in a research report sent to investors on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. Jefferies Financial Group currently has a $25.00 target price on the shipping company’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on GNK. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on Genco Shipping & Trading in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $22.00 price objective for the company. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded Genco Shipping & Trading from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $26.00 to $17.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $24.20.

Genco Shipping & Trading Price Performance

GNK stock traded down $0.12 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $17.43. The stock had a trading volume of 476,474 shares, compared to its average volume of 440,628. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $17.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $19.41. The company has a current ratio of 3.59, a quick ratio of 2.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The company has a market cap of $745.27 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.26 and a beta of 0.98. Genco Shipping & Trading has a 52-week low of $13.10 and a 52-week high of $23.43.

Genco Shipping & Trading (NYSE:GNK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The shipping company reported $0.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41. The firm had revenue of $99.33 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.02 million. Genco Shipping & Trading had a return on equity of 8.49% and a net margin of 15.63%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 19.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.09) EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Genco Shipping & Trading will post 1.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Genco Shipping & Trading Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be paid a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 18th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.18%. This is an increase from Genco Shipping & Trading’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. Genco Shipping & Trading’s payout ratio is 101.91%.

Institutional Trading of Genco Shipping & Trading

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its holdings in Genco Shipping & Trading by 66.6% in the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,050,030 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $22,376,000 after acquiring an additional 419,730 shares in the last quarter. Elevatus Welath Management bought a new position in Genco Shipping & Trading in the 1st quarter valued at $5,850,000. Algert Global LLC boosted its position in Genco Shipping & Trading by 694.2% in the 2nd quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 239,213 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $5,098,000 after buying an additional 209,093 shares during the last quarter. Foundry Partners LLC bought a new position in Genco Shipping & Trading in the 1st quarter valued at $3,812,000. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in shares of Genco Shipping & Trading by 16.4% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,096,741 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $23,372,000 after purchasing an additional 154,339 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 58.62% of the company’s stock.

About Genco Shipping & Trading

Genco Shipping & Trading Limited, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the ocean transportation of drybulk cargoes worldwide. The company owns and operates dry bulk vessels to transports iron ore, grains, coal, steel products, and other drybulk cargoes. It charters its vessels primarily to trading houses, including commodities traders; producers; and government-owned entities.