Ardmore Shipping Co. Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.18 (NYSE:ASC)

Ardmore Shipping Co. (NYSE:ASC) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, November 7th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be given a dividend of 0.18 per share by the shipping company on Friday, December 13th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th.

Ardmore Shipping has raised its dividend by an average of 184.4% annually over the last three years. Ardmore Shipping has a dividend payout ratio of 68.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Ardmore Shipping to earn $1.78 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.52 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 85.4%.

Ardmore Shipping Stock Down 2.3 %

Shares of NYSE ASC traded down $0.30 during trading on Thursday, hitting $12.91. The stock had a trading volume of 1,007,619 shares, compared to its average volume of 627,564. Ardmore Shipping has a 12 month low of $12.69 and a 12 month high of $23.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 3.50 and a quick ratio of 3.18. The company has a market capitalization of $540.18 million, a PE ratio of 3.76 and a beta of 0.37. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $16.87 and a two-hundred day moving average of $19.26.

Ardmore Shipping (NYSE:ASC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The shipping company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.02. Ardmore Shipping had a net margin of 36.31% and a return on equity of 24.26%. The firm had revenue of $61.54 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.77 million. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Ardmore Shipping will post 3.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on ASC shares. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Ardmore Shipping from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded shares of Ardmore Shipping from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $24.00 to $17.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Fearnley Fonds raised shares of Ardmore Shipping to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Ardmore Shipping from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Ardmore Shipping from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ardmore Shipping currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $22.33.

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.