Ardmore Shipping (NYSE:ASC) Price Target Lowered to $13.00 at Evercore ISI

Ardmore Shipping (NYSE:ASC) had its target price lowered by Evercore ISI from $14.00 to $13.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an outperform rating on the shipping company’s stock.

A number of other analysts also recently weighed in on ASC. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $17.00 price target on shares of Ardmore Shipping in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on Ardmore Shipping from $13.00 to $11.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ardmore Shipping has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $13.67.

Ardmore Shipping Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of ASC stock opened at $9.01 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $9.61 and a 200 day simple moving average of $11.71. Ardmore Shipping has a 1 year low of $8.32 and a 1 year high of $23.44. The company has a current ratio of 4.24, a quick ratio of 3.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The stock has a market cap of $364.50 million, a P/E ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 0.16.

Ardmore Shipping (NYSE:ASC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The shipping company reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by ($0.08). Ardmore Shipping had a return on equity of 20.48% and a net margin of 32.78%. On average, research analysts predict that Ardmore Shipping will post 1.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ardmore Shipping Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.55%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 28th. Ardmore Shipping’s dividend payout ratio is 10.46%.

Institutional Trading of Ardmore Shipping

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ardmore Shipping by 255.4% in the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 465,777 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $5,659,000 after acquiring an additional 334,704 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its holdings in Ardmore Shipping by 301.1% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 58,431 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $1,058,000 after purchasing an additional 43,862 shares in the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC raised its position in Ardmore Shipping by 406.6% in the fourth quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 97,836 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $1,189,000 after purchasing an additional 78,524 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ardmore Shipping by 261.1% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,116 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 1,530 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Ardmore Shipping by 24.6% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,413,554 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $17,175,000 after buying an additional 279,403 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.22% of the company’s stock.

About Ardmore Shipping

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.