Head to Head Contrast: Ardmore Shipping (ASC) vs. Its Peers

Ardmore Shipping (NYSE:ASC) is one of 1,051 public companies in the “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its peers? We will compare Ardmore Shipping to similar companies based on the strength of its earnings, valuation, profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and risk.

Dividends

Ardmore Shipping pays an annual dividend of $3.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 18.6%. Ardmore Shipping pays out 117.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. As a group, “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” companies pay a dividend yield of 9.1% and pay out -114.9% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.

Risk & Volatility

Ardmore Shipping has a beta of 0.15, suggesting that its share price is 85% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ardmore Shipping’s peers have a beta of -3.76, suggesting that their average share price is 476% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Ardmore Shipping and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ardmore Shipping	0	1	1	0	2.50
Ardmore Shipping Competitors	5975	26968	40820	2413	2.52

Ardmore Shipping presently has a consensus target price of $22.00, suggesting a potential upside of 29.32%. As a group, “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” companies have a potential upside of 29.08%. Given Ardmore Shipping’s higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Ardmore Shipping is more favorable than its peers.

Profitability

This table compares Ardmore Shipping and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ardmore Shipping	30.11%	15.38%	13.22%
Ardmore Shipping Competitors	-469.71%	19.37%	6.42%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

62.2% of Ardmore Shipping shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 30.8% of shares of all “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” companies are owned by institutional investors. 15.3% of shares of all “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Ardmore Shipping and its peers revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ardmore Shipping	$310.20 million	$41.01 million	6.32
Ardmore Shipping Competitors	$11.61 billion	$5.51 billion	-0.39

Ardmore Shipping’s peers have higher revenue and earnings than Ardmore Shipping. Ardmore Shipping is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Summary

Ardmore Shipping peers beat Ardmore Shipping on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

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. Ardmore Shipping Corporation was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Pembroke, Bermuda.