Genco Shipping & Trading Limited (NYSE:GNK) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

Genco Shipping & Trading Limited (NYSE:GNK) was the target of a large decline in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 775,500 shares, a decline of 6.7% from the December 15th total of 830,900 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 462,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.7 days. Approximately 1.9% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Institutional Trading of Genco Shipping & Trading

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Genco Shipping & Trading by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,869,297 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $61,145,000 after purchasing an additional 33,150 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in Genco Shipping & Trading by 1.0% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,190,467 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $23,214,000 after acquiring an additional 12,001 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in 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 in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Genco Shipping & Trading by 66.6% during the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,050,030 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $22,376,000 after purchasing an additional 419,730 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Townsend & Associates Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Genco Shipping & Trading by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Townsend & Associates Inc now owns 1,048,858 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $20,453,000 after purchasing an additional 27,783 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 58.62% of the company’s stock.

Genco Shipping & Trading Price Performance

NYSE:GNK traded up $0.13 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $14.40. 450,764 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 366,285. The company has a market cap of $615.53 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.24 and a beta of 0.99. Genco Shipping & Trading has a 1 year low of $13.51 and a 1 year high of $23.43. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $15.24 and a 200 day moving average price of $17.10. The company has a quick ratio of 2.49, a current ratio of 3.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08.

Genco Shipping & Trading (NYSE:GNK) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The shipping company reported $0.41 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41. The company had revenue of $99.33 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $72.02 million. Genco Shipping & Trading had a net margin of 15.63% and a return on equity of 8.46%. Genco Shipping & Trading’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($0.09) EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Genco Shipping & Trading will post 1.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Genco Shipping & Trading Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 25th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 18th were paid a $0.40 dividend. This is a positive change from Genco Shipping & Trading’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 18th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 11.11%. Genco Shipping & Trading’s dividend payout ratio is 101.91%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on GNK shares. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Genco Shipping & Trading from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Stifel Nicolaus cut shares of Genco Shipping & Trading from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $26.00 to $17.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $25.00 price objective on shares of Genco Shipping & Trading in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $24.20.

Genco Shipping & Trading Company Profile

Genco Shipping & Trading Ltd. is an international ship owning company, which engages in the transportation of iron ore, coal, grain, steel products, and other drybulk cargoes. The company was founded on September 27, 2004 and is headquartered in New York, NY.