Ardmore Shipping Co. (NYSE:ASC) Short Interest Update

Ardmore Shipping Co. (NYSE:ASC) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 2,500,000 shares, a growth of 18.5% from the September 15th total of 2,110,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 524,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.8 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its position in Ardmore Shipping by 47.2% during the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,400,981 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $31,564,000 after purchasing an additional 449,200 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in Ardmore Shipping by 27.4% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,124,835 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $25,343,000 after purchasing an additional 241,748 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Ardmore Shipping by 23.9% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 696,697 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $9,816,000 after purchasing an additional 134,233 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Ardmore Shipping by 51.0% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 541,103 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $8,885,000 after purchasing an additional 182,650 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. raised its position in Ardmore Shipping by 15.0% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 495,593 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $8,138,000 after purchasing an additional 64,805 shares during the last quarter. 62.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ardmore Shipping Price Performance

Shares of ASC stock traded up $0.02 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $16.69. The company had a trading volume of 167,723 shares, compared to its average volume of 625,237. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 3.18 and a current ratio of 3.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $678.06 million, a P/E ratio of 6.38 and a beta of 0.35. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $18.24 and its 200 day moving average price is $19.42. Ardmore Shipping has a one year low of $12.69 and a one year high of $23.44.

Ardmore Shipping (NYSE:ASC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The shipping company reported $1.13 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.08 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $121.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $80.51 million. Ardmore Shipping had a net margin of 36.31% and a return on equity of 24.26%. The company’s revenue was up 32.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.57 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Ardmore Shipping will post 3.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ardmore Shipping Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 30th were issued a dividend of $0.38 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 30th. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.11%. Ardmore Shipping’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 58.24%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ASC has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Fearnley Fonds upgraded Ardmore Shipping to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Ardmore Shipping from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on Ardmore Shipping from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. StockNews.com cut Ardmore Shipping from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Ardmore Shipping from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $24.67.

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.