Ardmore Shipping (NYSE:ASC) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results

Key Points

• Ardmore Shipping reported a quarterly earnings per share of $0.22, exceeding analysts' expectations of $0.18, while also generating $72.05 million in revenue, significantly above the expected $44.92 million.
• The company's revenue has decreased by 40.6% year-over-year, falling from $1.14 earnings per share in the same quarter of the previous year.
• Ardmore Shipping announced a dividend of $0.05 per share, resulting in a dividend yield of 2.05%, with a low payout ratio of 8.77%.

Ardmore Shipping (NYSE:ASC - Get Free Report) announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The shipping company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.18 by $0.04, Briefing.com reports. Ardmore Shipping had a net margin of 14.48% and a return on equity of 8.46%. The company had revenue of $72.05 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $44.92 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.14 EPS. Ardmore Shipping's revenue for the quarter was down 40.6% on a year-over-year basis.

Ardmore Shipping Stock Performance

Shares of ASC traded down $0.23 on Friday, reaching $10.65. The company's stock had a trading volume of 788,436 shares, compared to its average volume of 546,115. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 3.88 and a quick ratio of 3.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $432.60 million, a P/E ratio of 10.34 and a beta of 0.05. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $10.05 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $10.11. Ardmore Shipping has a 12-month low of $8.32 and a 12-month high of $20.21.

Ardmore Shipping Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 13th. Investors of record on Monday, June 2nd were issued a $0.05 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 30th. This represents a dividend yield of 205.0%. Ardmore Shipping's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 19.42%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ardmore Shipping

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ardmore Shipping by 7.5% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 234,987 shares of the shipping company's stock worth $2,301,000 after buying an additional 16,458 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Ardmore Shipping by 4.7% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 24,701 shares of the shipping company's stock worth $242,000 after buying an additional 1,102 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Ardmore Shipping by 31.2% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 77,769 shares of the shipping company's stock valued at $761,000 after purchasing an additional 18,500 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.22% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ASC has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $14.00 price objective on shares of Ardmore Shipping in a research report on Wednesday. Fearnley Fonds raised shares of Ardmore Shipping from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. Finally, Evercore ISI set a $13.00 price objective on shares of Ardmore Shipping in a research report on Wednesday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $12.67.

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.