Star Bulk Carriers Corp.

SBLKdata completeness 88%17 fiscal years on file
The thesis, from the filings

Star Bulk Carriers Corp. earns about 25% on invested capital, far above its ~9% cost of capital, but has diluted owners by 14% over 5 years — a real edge showing up in the numbers. The estimate methods put fair value between $27.35 and $43.56 a share.Whether it’s worth owning at today’s price is the last question — and yours to answer, below.

i. The business — what you’d actually own
FigureFY 2021FY 2022FY 2023FY 2024FY 2025
Revenue$1.43B1$1.44B2$949.3M3$1.27B3$1.04B3
Net income$680.5M4$566M5$173.6M6$304.7M6$84.2M6
Operating cash flow$767.1M7$769.9M8$335.8M9$471.2M9$295.9M9
Capital expenditure$130.1M10$25.4M11$18.1M12$55.1M12$84M12
Free cash flow (derived)$636.9M7$744.5M8$317.7M9$416.1M9$211.9M9
Total debt
Cash & equivalents$450.3M13$269.8M14$227.5M15$425.1M15$488.5M15
Diluted shares101.5M102.5M98.9M108.7M115.4M

Superscripts are receipts. Each links to the SEC filing the number came from (full list at the bottom).

ii. Your slice — ownership made literal
If you owned
shares
Net assets behind them
$212.2
your share of equity
Profit it earned you last year
$7.29
Free cash flow it threw off
$18.36
Debt you’d be carrying

10 shares is a claim on $212.2 of net worth that earned you $7.29 and generated $18.36 of cash last year.

iii. Is this a good business?
Moat signal · return on invested capital
25% avg · 5y
FY21 45%FY22 35%FY23 17%FY24 19%FY25 8%

It earned about 25% on invested capital, year after year, against a ~9% cost of capital — the footprint of real pricing power. Competition usually drags returns like this back down; here it hasn't.

seeing a moat in the numbers →
Management signal · capital allocation
+14% shares · 5y

Share count is up 14% over 5 years — owners have been diluted. Worth asking what they got for it.

reading capital allocation →

Signals, not verdicts — read from the filings above. Numbers don’t prove a moat; they show its footprint. You decide.

iv. What it’s worth — engine v0.1.0

The 3 estimate methods that apply put fair value between $27.35 and $43.56 a share. They rest on different assumptions, so where they diverge is the story; the Graham Number is a stricter floor, not a target.

DCF · Growth Exit 10Y
$40.6
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears10
  • fcfGrowth0.0%
  • fcfBase$317.7M
DCF · Growth Exit 5Y
$43.56
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears5
  • fcfGrowth0.0%
  • fcfBase$317.7M
Earnings Power Value
$27.35
assumptions (8)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • normalizedEarnings$304.7M
  • growthAssumed0.0%
Graham Number
$18.67
assumptions (1)
  • grahamMultiplier2250.0%

Different models answer different questions — which to trust when →

v. The price question — last, on purpose
Is today’s price fair?
See live price ↗
Type a price. The ledger answers.
Or set your own belief
FCF growth, next 5 years0.0%
Discount rate (WACC)8.93%
Terminal growth2.5%
At your growth, a share is worth $43.56
The three cases
Bear0.0%$43.56
Base0.0%$43.56
Bull5.0%$53.08

Bear/base/bull growth = 0% / filed history / history + 5pp. Type a price to see the return each case implies.

Default growth 0.0%= this company’s own filed history (median-to-median FCF CAGR, clamped 0–20%). Your adjustments are recorded anonymously. They become the “what do owners actually believe” dataset.

Sources — the receipts
  1. 20-F · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000950157-24-000400 (Revenues)
  2. 20-F · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000950157-25-000241 (Revenues)
  3. 20-F · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000950157-26-000397 (Revenues)
  4. 20-F · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000950157-24-000400 (NetIncomeLoss)
  5. 20-F · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000950157-25-000241 (NetIncomeLoss)
  6. 20-F · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000950157-26-000397 (NetIncomeLoss)
  7. 20-F · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000950157-24-000400 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  8. 20-F · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000950157-25-000241 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  9. 20-F · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000950157-26-000397 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  10. 20-F · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000950157-24-000400 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  11. 20-F · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000950157-25-000241 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  12. 20-F · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000950157-26-000397 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  13. 20-F · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000950157-24-000400 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  14. 20-F · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000950157-25-000241 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  15. 20-F · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000950157-26-000397 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)