When New York-listed Star Bulk Carriers posted its first dividend in seven years in November 2019, one equity analyst quickly touted it "a game changer".
It wasn't.
Star Bulk paid a total of two quarters of dividends — each at $0.05 per share — before the real game changer surfaced: the Covid-19 outbreak in the first quarter of 2020.
Along with several other shipowners, the bulker owner dropped the dividend to conserve cash in the face of a pandemic.
