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

Ardmore Shipping Co. (NYSE:ASC) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, November 6th,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 5.60%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 29th.

Ardmore Shipping has raised its dividend by an average of 184.4% per year over the last three years. Ardmore Shipping has a 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 Price Performance

Shares of Ardmore Shipping stock traded down $0.35 during trading on Thursday, hitting $12.86. The stock had a trading volume of 1,311,995 shares, compared to its average volume of 629,262. Ardmore Shipping has a fifty-two week low of $12.69 and a fifty-two week 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 business has a fifty day moving average of $16.87 and a two-hundred day moving average of $19.26. The firm has a market cap of $538.09 million, a P/E ratio of 3.66 and a beta of 0.37.

Ardmore Shipping (NYSE:ASC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The shipping company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $61.54 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $60.77 million. Ardmore Shipping had a return on equity of 24.26% and a net margin of 36.31%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Ardmore Shipping will post 3.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ASC has been the topic of several analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded shares of Ardmore Shipping from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $24.00 to $17.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Evercore ISI increased their target price on Ardmore Shipping from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on Ardmore Shipping from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. StockNews.com downgraded Ardmore Shipping from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Fearnley Fonds upgraded Ardmore Shipping to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $22.33.

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.