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

Ardmore Shipping Co. (NYSE:ASC) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,290,000 shares, a growth of 8.0% from the December 31st total of 2,120,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 829,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.8 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ASC has been the topic of several research reports. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on Ardmore Shipping from $20.00 to $17.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered Ardmore Shipping from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $24.00 to $17.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $20.00.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ASC. Ieq Capital LLC bought a new stake in Ardmore Shipping in the fourth quarter valued at $161,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC lifted its position in Ardmore Shipping by 78.2% in the 4th quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 39,575 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $476,000 after purchasing an additional 17,371 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in Ardmore Shipping by 9.7% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 34,398 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $418,000 after purchasing an additional 3,043 shares during the last quarter. Savant Capital LLC acquired a new position in Ardmore Shipping during the 4th quarter valued at about $269,000. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC grew its position in Ardmore Shipping by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 218,529 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $2,655,000 after purchasing an additional 10,654 shares during the last quarter. 62.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Ardmore Shipping Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ASC opened at $11.65 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 3.26, a current ratio of 3.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $11.85 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $15.33. Ardmore Shipping has a 52-week low of $10.86 and a 52-week high of $23.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $487.52 million, a P/E ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 0.25.

Ardmore Shipping Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Friday, November 29th were issued a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.18%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 29th. Ardmore Shipping’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.17%.

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.