Ardmore Shipping Corporation (NYSE:ASC) Receives $13.33 Average PT from Analysts

Ardmore Shipping Corporation (NYSE:ASC) has received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the six brokerages that are covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, two have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $13.6667.

Several brokerages have issued reports on ASC. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $15.00 price target on shares of Ardmore Shipping in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Ardmore Shipping from $13.00 to $15.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Ardmore Shipping in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Zacks Research cut shares of Ardmore Shipping from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 29th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ardmore Shipping during the second quarter valued at approximately $21,019,000. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in Ardmore Shipping by 4.4% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,642,656 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $15,769,000 after purchasing an additional 69,788 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Ardmore Shipping by 5.2% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,487,111 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $14,559,000 after purchasing an additional 73,557 shares in the last quarter. Private Management Group Inc. increased its stake in Ardmore Shipping by 3.4% during the 2nd quarter. Private Management Group Inc. now owns 1,242,297 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $11,926,000 after purchasing an additional 40,460 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Royce & Associates LP raised its holdings in Ardmore Shipping by 5.9% during the first quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 879,760 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $8,613,000 after buying an additional 49,340 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.22% of the company’s stock.

Ardmore Shipping Price Performance

ASC stock opened at $12.91 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 4.08, a current ratio of 4.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The firm has a market cap of $524.49 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.55 and a beta of 0.01. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $12.19 and its 200 day simple moving average is $10.93. Ardmore Shipping has a 12-month low of $8.32 and a 12-month high of $13.85.

Ardmore Shipping (NYSE:ASC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 5th. The shipping company reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.28 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $81.25 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $48.38 million. Ardmore Shipping had a return on equity of 6.69% and a net margin of 11.50%.The business’s quarterly revenue was down 15.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.55 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Ardmore Shipping will post 1.06 earnings per share for the current year.

Ardmore Shipping Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 12th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 28th will be paid a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 28th. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.1%. This is a boost from Ardmore Shipping’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.07. Ardmore Shipping’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 35.90%.

Ardmore Shipping Company Profile

Ardmore Shipping Corporation engages in the seaborne transportation of petroleum products and chemicals worldwide. The company's fleet consists of 22 owned vessels including 21 Eco-design and 1 Eco-mod vessel, and four chartered-in vessels. It serves oil majors, oil companies, oil and chemical traders, chemical companies, and pooling service providers.