DryShips Surges on Subsidiary's Private Offering

DryShips reported earnings of 18 cents per share, or $49 million. Excluding one-time items the income number would have come in at $99 million, or 38 cents per share, easily besting the consensus Wall Street estimate of 25 cents per share.

Quarterly revenue inched higher by 1.4% to $225.2 million from a year ago, also beating expectations.

>>DryShips Tops Views; Stock Jumps

The company finally made good this fall on promises regarding its long-floundering drilling business, inking contracts on several vessels that had still required financing.

DryShips CEO George Economou issued a rosy outlook on that score as well, saying, "The ultra deepwater market has turned a corner in the last couple of months and we believe that current enquiry from operators matches or may even exceed the supply available in 2011."

Industry rival Diana Shipping (DSX) traded higher last week as well thanks to a healthy buy rating from Goldman Sachs (GS). Shares added 1.5% on Monday.

>>Diana Shipping Cruises on Buy Rating

Analysts from Goldman Sachs initiated coverage of the dry-bulk shipper Tuesday with a buy rating and $17 price target, which represents a 34.6% upside to Diana's closing price Tuesday of $12.63.

Goldman's bullish rating cited that 60% of Diana's fleet is chartered out through at least the second half of 2012. The firm estimated that Diana has $1 billion in cash and debt capacity to take advantage of expected vessel acquisition opportunities. Goldman also likes Diana's disciplined managed team.

Diana recently posted third-quarter net income of $33.8 million earlier this month, up 17.8% from a profit of $28.7 million in the third quarter of 2009.

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