EuroDry Ltd. (EDRY) Tops Q4 EPS by 14c, Revenues Miss

EuroDry Ltd. (NASDAQ: EDRY) reported Q4 EPS of $0.31, $0.14 better than the analyst estimate of $0.17. Revenue for the quarter came in at $7 million versus the consensus estimate of $7.53 million.

Aristides Pittas, Chairman and CEO of EuroDry commented: “During the fourth quarter of 2018, the drybulk market was influenced by the continued uncertainty introduced by the trade tensions between US and China and the subsequent trade slowdown. Charter rates weakened throughout the quarter with further declines registering in January and February of 2019. In this environment, we have timely secured physical and FFA contracts to cover the majority of our vessels with fixed rate contracts during 2019 insulating, to a significant extent, our earnings from adverse market moves. At the same time, we have completed the refinancing of some of our loans and increased funds available to exploit investment opportunities should they appear.

We continue to believe that drybulk markets could offer significant opportunities for sizable returns in the medium term. Historically low orderbook and required compliance with emissions and ballast water treatment regulation would limit fleet growth and vessel availability and provide a favorable backdrop for any positive trade demand developments to be translated to higher vessel earnings.”

“Our capital markets strategy remains to be one of conservatively growing the company either organically or by providing a public consolidation platform for other private fleets or vessels. We expect that with time EuroDry will increase its visibility amongst investors and contribute to reducing the significant discount to the NAV our stock trades at, thus, offering additional rewards to our shareholders.”

Tasos Aslidis, Chief Financial Officer of EuroDry commented: “The operating results of the fourth quarter of 2018 reflect the average level of charter rates our vessels enjoyed during the quarter which was higher by 11.4% than the average time charter equivalent rate our vessels earned in the fourth quarter of 2017.”

“Total daily vessel operating expenses, including management fees, general and administrative expenses, but excluding drydocking costs, increased approximately 37% during the fourth quarter of 2018 compared to the same quarter of last year, while for the full year 2018 the increase was approximately 23.4%. This is partly due to the higher general and administrative expenses incurred due to the Spin-off and the operation of the Company as a separate public company following the completion of the Spin-off as compared to allocated general and administrative expenses in the carve-out financials for 2017 which resulted in higher contribution to the daily general and administrative expenses. As always, we want to emphasize that cost control remains a key component of our strategy.”

“Adjusted EBITDA during the fourth quarter of 2018 was $3.5 compared to $2.9 million achieved for the fourth quarter of last year. As of December 31, 2018, our outstanding debt (excluding the unamortized loan fees) was $63.9 million versus restricted and unrestricted cash and cash due from related companies of approximately $13.7 million."

For earnings history and earnings-related data on EuroDry Ltd. (EDRY) click here.

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