MJP Associates Inc. ADV Purchases New Position in Ardmore Shipping Co. (NYSE:ASC)

MJP Associates Inc. ADV purchased a new stake in shares of Ardmore Shipping Co. (NYSE:ASC) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 10,000 shares of the shipping company’s stock, valued at approximately $141,000.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Capricorn Fund Managers Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Ardmore Shipping in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $423,000. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd increased its position in shares of Ardmore Shipping by 23.6% in the third quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 291,861 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $3,797,000 after buying an additional 55,813 shares in the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Ardmore Shipping by 147.0% in the third quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 45,205 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $576,000 after buying an additional 26,900 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ardmore Shipping in the third quarter valued at approximately $183,000. Finally, Boston Partners increased its position in shares of Ardmore Shipping by 10.9% in the third quarter. Boston Partners now owns 91,979 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $1,197,000 after buying an additional 9,048 shares in the last quarter. 62.22% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Ardmore Shipping Price Performance

Shares of ASC traded up $0.07 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $16.42. 570,203 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 667,621. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 3.38 and a current ratio of 3.75. Ardmore Shipping Co. has a 12-month low of $11.59 and a 12-month high of $17.17. The company has a market cap of $667.14 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.99 and a beta of 0.39. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $16.13 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $14.46.

Ardmore Shipping (NYSE:ASC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The shipping company reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.61 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $98.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.33 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Ardmore Shipping Co. will post 2.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Ardmore Shipping Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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 was Wednesday, February 28th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.12%. This is a positive change from Ardmore Shipping’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.16. Ardmore Shipping’s payout ratio is 30.77%.

Ardmore Shipping 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.