Ardmore Shipping Corporation (NYSE:ASC) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

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

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on ASC. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Ardmore Shipping in a report on Wednesday, December 24th. Zacks Research cut Ardmore Shipping from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 29th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $15.00 target price on shares of Ardmore Shipping in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Ardmore Shipping from $13.00 to $15.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 28th.

Ardmore Shipping Stock Performance

ASC opened at $11.93 on Monday. Ardmore Shipping has a 1-year low of $8.32 and a 1-year high of $13.56. The company has a market cap of $484.39 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.29 and a beta of -0.08. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $11.64 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $11.59. The company has a current ratio of 4.46, a quick ratio of 4.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

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

Ardmore Shipping Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 12th. Investors of record on Friday, November 28th were issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.4%. This is an increase from Ardmore Shipping’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.07. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 28th. Ardmore Shipping’s dividend payout ratio is 51.28%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ardmore Shipping

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Strs Ohio bought a new position in shares of Ardmore Shipping during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $371,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC purchased a new position in Ardmore Shipping in the second quarter valued at approximately $21,019,000. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd bought a new position in Ardmore Shipping during the second quarter valued at $334,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Ardmore Shipping in the second quarter worth $434,000. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in Ardmore Shipping by 4.4% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,642,656 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $15,769,000 after buying an additional 69,788 shares during the last quarter. 62.22% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ardmore Shipping Company Profile

Ardmore Shipping Corporation is a Bermuda-based provider of seaborne transportation services for refined petroleum products. The company owns and operates a modern fleet of product tankers, including medium-range (MR), long-range 2 (LR2) and Aframax vessels. Ardmore Shipping focuses on the ocean carriage of clean and dirty petroleum products under time charters, bareboat charters and spot voyages, serving a diverse customer base that includes major oil companies and trading houses.

Since its founding in 2005, Ardmore Shipping has grown its fleet through newbuilding contracts, second-hand acquisitions and fleet renewals, aiming to maintain a high quality, fuel-efficient profile.