Ardmore Shipping Co. (NYSE:ASC) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

Ardmore Shipping Co. (NYSE:ASC) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,070,000 shares, a drop of 21.9% from the February 29th total of 1,370,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 675,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.6 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ASC has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $20.00 price objective on shares of Ardmore Shipping in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. StockNews.com downgraded Ardmore Shipping from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Ardmore Shipping from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ardmore Shipping

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ASC. BlackRock Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ardmore Shipping by 43.4% in the 3rd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 2,848,449 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $26,006,000 after buying an additional 862,349 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Ardmore Shipping by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,758,657 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $38,870,000 after buying an additional 56,984 shares during the last quarter. Aristotle Capital Boston LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ardmore Shipping by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. Aristotle Capital Boston LLC now owns 2,029,088 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $25,059,000 after buying an additional 31,645 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in shares of Ardmore Shipping by 35.2% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 913,151 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $13,159,000 after buying an additional 237,920 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ardmore Shipping by 519.5% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 853,129 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $5,946,000 after buying an additional 715,406 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.22% of the company’s stock.

Ardmore Shipping Stock Performance

Shares of ASC opened at $16.42 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 3.75 and a quick ratio of 3.38. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $16.19 and a 200-day moving average of $14.53. The company has a market cap of $667.14 million, a PE ratio of 6.01 and a beta of 0.39. Ardmore Shipping has a one year low of $11.59 and a one year high of $17.17.

Ardmore Shipping (NYSE:ASC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The shipping company reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $98.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.26 million. Ardmore Shipping had a return on equity of 22.76% and a net margin of 29.50%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 25.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.33 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Ardmore Shipping will post 2.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ardmore Shipping Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 28th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.12%. This is an increase from Ardmore Shipping’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.16. Ardmore Shipping’s payout ratio is 30.77%.

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.