The press release linked above from Safe Bulkers caught my eye. I did not know that about 81% of the company is in private hands. I am not sure what this means for the holders of the other 18% but I am not sure that the interests of a pair of rich shareholders will have the same concerns as holders of small blocks of shares. Something to think about.

Here are the payors 6 through 10 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.

• Navios Maritime Holdings, $37.92, +75%
• International Shipholding Corp. $39.00, -9.4%
• Safe Bulkers, $45.00, +16.8%
• Tsakos Energy Navigation, $45.90, +22.8%
• Euroseas, Ltd. $46.60, +38%

Of this group, Navios and Safe Bulkers are bulk carriers, Tsakos Energy Nav is in the tanker business and International Shipholding and Euroseas are mixed fleet carriers. ISH is a domestic U.S. carrier with a diversity of shipping business and I think it has suffered from the U.S. economic slowdown. It also appears to be distribution somewhat more than current free cash flow.

Otherwise, these companies with distribution yields in the 4% to 8% range have rewarded their share holders pretty well in the 1st half of 2009.

The 1st quarter results for Safe Bulkers Inc. SB are linked above. As with many recent quarterly earnings results this one has some interesting reading.

Net income showed a 160% increase, but all of the increase was from a one-time $29 million gain on an early termination of a time charter. Throw out that gain and the $10 million currency loss for the same quarter of 2008 and net results were about level year over year.

SB earned an average TCE of $41k per day on their fleet of Panamax class dry bulk vessels. This more than double the current spot rate, so having ships come off time charter could be an issue. Hopefully, after checking out the fleet list this will not be a problem in 2009.

Safe Bulkers has a good cash balance, most of which is restricted to keep their bankers happy, and is about a third of long term debt. The 15¢ dividend appears to be about 30% of free cash flow, so is well covered. Safe Bulkers may be a good place to earn a reasonable dividend while waiting for the dry bulk market to improve.

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.

Safe Bulkers [[SB]] cut it’s dividend to 15 cents per share and is trying to change their loan covenants.

The subscription list for this new site continues to grow and I am working to have the site live within the next week or so.