My stock market interest is focused around companies that pay distributions. After watching the market for the last year and a half, I have come to the conclusion that the safest money is that which is paid out to me as dividends. The companies that have been able to maintain their distributions over the last year or so have rewarded their investors for believing in the companies. Those investors that bought these stocks when the prices were stupidly low (not a shipping company but AYR at $2.50 per share!) have done very well over the last 8 months.

I will be reviewing the dividend policies of 2 to 3 stocks every couple of days in alphabetical order. So here we go:

Capital Product Partners LP CPLP has been paying steadily increasing dividends, currently at 41¢ per share. At the IPO in 2007 the minimum distribution level was set at 37.5¢ per share. In January the board of directors declared a one-time distribution of $1.05 that was paid instead of the usual 41¢. Cash flow seems sufficient to maintain the distribution level.

DHT Maritime Inc. DHT appears to have a minimum distribution level of 25¢ per quarter. Payouts have been higher when profit sharing on their fleet of chartered tankers do well. Quarterly payouts have ranged from 25¢ to 53¢ over the last 4 years.

Euroseas Ltd. ESEA has a flexible dividend based on the board’s decision each quarter. From 2005 until 2008 the quarterly number had been between 20¢ and 30¢ per share. For the 1st two payouts of 2009 the rate has been at 10¢.

OK, there is the information on the first 3 out of 24. I see that Frontline is next on the alphabetical list, so the next post will be fun.

Here are the payors 16 through 20 on my list. The stocks are listed in this order: Company and stock symbol, dividend earned on $1000 invested on 1/1/2009 (divide by 5 to get an annualized percentage) and the share price change since the beginning of the year.

• Teekay LNG Partners, LP TGP, $76.38, +24.5%
• Omega Navigation Enterprises ONAV, $78.50, -17.6%
• Teekay Offshore Partners, LP TOO, $82.90, +26.9%
• General Maritime Corporation GMR, $93.00, -8.2%
• DHT Maritime Inc. DHT, $99.55, -5.6%

This group is all tankers, some speciality and product, some crude transport. You can see these stocks paid investors 7.6% to almost 10% in the 1st half alone. It is also clear from the share price action that the market does not think these payout rates are sustainable. Omega Navigation only paid a single dividend in the 1st half and suspended payouts indefinitely when they announced Q1 earnings. ONAV has moved to my suspended dividend list, leaving 24 stocks in the still paying category.

The Teekay spinoffs have performed extremely well compared to TK itself, which is down 10% Y-T-D. 30%+ returns for the 1st 6 months of 2009 should make investors happy!

After the Q1 earnings release I made a personal investment into DHT. I am hoping the current dividend level is sustainable.

This is my first look at numbers from DHT Maritime DHT. The company owns 9 double hull tankers of various sizes that are on long term charter to Overseas Shipholding OSG. The vessels have fixed rate contracts plus profit sharing when OSG earns above the base charter rate with the vessels.

DHT has instituted a fixed dividend policy of 25¢ per share. Twice in 2008 they declared a special 5¢ dividend in addition to the base distribution. The first quarter declaration was 25¢ against distributable cash flow of 43¢ per share.

It appears that the base charter rate revenues are enough to support the dividend. This is a good thing because tanker spot rates are in the tank right now. To me, DHT looks like a possible investment to collect some good income while waiting for tanker rates to recover. The stock goes ex-dividend next Friday, so their may be a buying opportunity at that time.