SFL Co. Ltd. (NYSE:SFL) Position Cut by MQS Management LLC

MQS Management LLC trimmed its stake in SFL Co. Ltd. (NYSE:SFL) by 49.2% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 20,089 shares of the shipping company’s stock after selling 19,479 shares during the quarter. MQS Management LLC’s holdings in SFL were worth $232,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SFL. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new stake in SFL in the first quarter valued at $195,000. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of SFL by 61.1% during the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 1,067,790 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $14,073,000 after purchasing an additional 405,152 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of SFL by 8.5% during the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 20,699 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $273,000 after purchasing an additional 1,629 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of SFL by 7.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,348,021 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $17,767,000 after purchasing an additional 89,300 shares during the period. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of SFL during the first quarter valued at $1,679,000. 28.59% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Pareto Securities raised SFL from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th.

SFL Price Performance

Shares of SFL opened at $10.39 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.36 and a beta of 0.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.93, a quick ratio of 0.50 and a current ratio of 0.50. SFL Co. Ltd. has a one year low of $10.01 and a one year high of $14.62. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $11.07 and its 200-day moving average is $12.33.

SFL (NYSE:SFL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The shipping company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $255.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $243.98 million. SFL had a return on equity of 14.61% and a net margin of 16.03%. SFL’s revenue was up 24.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.23 earnings per share.

SFL Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 10.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. SFL’s payout ratio is currently 97.30%.

SFL Company Profile

SFL Corporation Ltd., a maritime and offshore asset owning and chartering company, engages in the ownership, operation, and chartering out of vessels and offshore related assets on medium and long-term charters. The company operates in various sectors of the maritime, and shipping and offshore industries, including oil transportation, dry bulk shipments, chemical transportation, oil products transportation, container transportation, car transportation, and drilling rigs.