OCNF, DRYS, DSX, GNK, EGLE, SBLK, EXM, GLNG, DAC.

The cumulative value of the 42 stocks on an equal weighted basis is down 15.5% not including dividends since the 1st of the year. 10 of the stocks are in positive territory, leaving 32 lower than their value at the beginning of the year. On the positive side, OSG America L.P. OSP has gained 54% and K-Sea Transportation Partners, L.P. KSP which is up over 45%. No other stock on the list has gained more than 14%. On the loser side there are some scary numbers, led by the dividend slashing crowd. Here is a list: DRYS down 53%, OCNF minus 51%, DAC off 47%, SB losing 47% and GLNG 44% below where it started the year. Another 8 stocks have losses YTD greater than 30%.

My next grouping is those companies that are still paying some sort of on going distributions. At this time I have 26 stocks still listed as paying dividends. Total return for this group is a minus 10.9% including just under 3% earned so far in dividends. Biggest decliners were the previously mentioned Safe Bulkers (SB) and Overseas Shipholding Group OSG down 39%. It is interesting that OSG is the GP and holds 75% of the units in the top performing OSP.

Following the dividend payors is the group that has discontinued or suspended their payouts. This group of 8 stocks is down 32.6% so far this year. Diana Shipping, DSX is the standout, off only 2.6%.

Now some sector breakdowns (all returns do not include any dividends): Tankers consists of 18 stocks and are down 13.1%. 5 of the tanker stocks are currently in positive territory led by OSP, TOO and TGP. Dry Bulkers have 11 stocks in their group and are down 22.8%. Navios Maritime Partners, L.P. NMM is the single dry bulk stock with a positive return. The container and mixed fleet group has 8 components and is down 24.4%. Seaspan Corp SSW is the only winner in this group. I have an “other shipping” category consisting of 3 stocks: ISH, KSP and ULTR. KSP’s big gain so far has this bunch 2.6% into positive territory.

The first quarter has been pretty rough for this sector. The standouts have been the LPs that have been able to and appear to be able to continue their distributions. The shipping sector is still struggling, waiting for global economic activity to pick up again.

OCNF, DRYS, DSX, GNK, EGLE, SBLK and EXM

On average, these 7 stocks have fallen 40% year-to-date, compared with a 12% average decline of the stocks on my list of continuing dividend payors. If and/or when these companies get their financial house back in order enough to resume dividend payments, the stock price gains will be very attractive. For the bottom fishing types, these companies could be attractive if one assumes that all past and future bad news is already baked into the share prices.Even though the charter rates have rallied off the recent lows, these companies still need the global economy to rev up and ship values to improve to really get back to stability.

From my scanning of the recent news on the list here, I think that DSX and GNK are probably in the best shape. DRYS and SBLK are scary. Not enough information in the data bank to form an opinion on the others. Final note, I have checked the Dry Bulk category for this article because all of the companies here with the suspended distributions are in that line of shippage.