Financial Contrast: Safe Bulkers (SB) vs. Its Competitors

Safe Bulkers (NYSE:SB) is one of 80 public companies in the “Marine Transportation” industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare Safe Bulkers to similar companies based on the strength of its valuation, earnings, risk, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Dividends

Safe Bulkers pays an annual dividend of $0.30 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. Safe Bulkers pays out 38.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Marine Transportation” companies pay a dividend yield of 4.5% and pay out 26.9% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Safe Bulkers lags its peers as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Safe Bulkers and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Safe Bulkers	0	1	1	0	2.50
Safe Bulkers Competitors	447	1655	1701	93	2.37

Safe Bulkers currently has a consensus price target of $6.00, indicating a potential downside of 19.18%. As a group, “Marine Transportation” companies have a potential upside of 11.13%. Given Safe Bulkers’ peers higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Safe Bulkers has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Volatility & Risk

Safe Bulkers has a beta of 1.09, indicating that its share price is 9% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Safe Bulkers’ peers have a beta of 1.11, indicating that their average share price is 11% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Safe Bulkers and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Safe Bulkers	28.29%	9.63%	5.77%
Safe Bulkers Competitors	30.74%	13.51%	6.67%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

21.7% of Safe Bulkers shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 30.7% of shares of all “Marine Transportation” companies are held by institutional investors. 40.3% of Safe Bulkers shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 29.1% of shares of all “Marine Transportation” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Safe Bulkers and its peers top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Safe Bulkers	$275.74 million	$38.56 million	9.52
Safe Bulkers Competitors	$3.68 billion	$344.61 million	13.31

Safe Bulkers’ peers have higher revenue and earnings than Safe Bulkers. Safe Bulkers is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Summary

Safe Bulkers peers beat Safe Bulkers on 12 of the 15 factors compared.

Safe Bulkers Company Profile

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. Its fleet consists of 10 Panamax class vessels, 11 Kamsarmax class vessels, 18 post-Panamax class vessels, and 8 Capesize class vessels. Safe Bulkers, Inc. was incorporated in 2007 and is based in Monaco.