Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Acquires Shares of 40,231 Ardmore Shipping Corporation (NYSE:ASC)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC acquired a new stake in Ardmore Shipping Corporation (NYSE:ASC) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 40,231 shares of the shipping company’s stock, valued at approximately $394,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ASC. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its position in shares of Ardmore Shipping by 1,647.3% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 670,993 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $8,153,000 after buying an additional 632,592 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Ardmore Shipping by 255.4% during the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 465,777 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $5,659,000 after buying an additional 334,704 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Ardmore Shipping by 24.6% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,413,554 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $17,175,000 after buying an additional 279,403 shares during the period. Squarepoint Ops LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ardmore Shipping during the fourth quarter valued at about $2,631,000. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company MN increased its position in shares of Ardmore Shipping by 34.7% during the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 712,587 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $8,658,000 after buying an additional 183,393 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.22% of the company’s stock.

Ardmore Shipping Price Performance

Shares of ASC opened at $10.25 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $416.36 million, a PE ratio of 4.50 and a beta of 0.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 3.36 and a current ratio of 3.73. Ardmore Shipping Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $8.32 and a fifty-two week high of $22.70. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $9.88 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $10.39.

Ardmore Shipping (NYSE:ASC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The shipping company reported $0.14 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by ($0.01). Ardmore Shipping had a net margin of 26.78% and a return on equity of 14.77%. The firm had revenue of $74.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $43.04 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.92 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 30.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Ardmore Shipping Corporation will post 1.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ardmore Shipping Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.05 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 2.05%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 30th. Ardmore Shipping’s payout ratio is 8.77%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on ASC. Fearnley Fonds upgraded shares of Ardmore Shipping from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on shares of Ardmore Shipping from $14.00 to $13.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $13.67.

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.