Ardmore Shipping Co. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.08 (NYSE:ASC)

Ardmore Shipping Co. (NYSE:ASC) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 13th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a dividend of 0.08 per share by the shipping company on Friday, March 14th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th.

Ardmore Shipping has a dividend payout ratio of 52.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Ardmore Shipping to earn $1.04 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.72 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 69.2%.

Ardmore Shipping Stock Performance

Shares of ASC opened at $10.43 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $436.29 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.25. The company’s fifty day moving average is $11.89 and its 200-day moving average is $14.84. The company has a quick ratio of 3.26, a current ratio of 3.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Ardmore Shipping has a 12 month low of $10.22 and a 12 month high of $23.44.

Ardmore Shipping (NYSE:ASC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The shipping company reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.33 by ($0.08). Ardmore Shipping had a return on equity of 23.63% and a net margin of 36.22%. Equities analysts expect that Ardmore Shipping will post 2.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $17.00 price objective on shares of Ardmore Shipping in a research note on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on shares of Ardmore Shipping from $13.00 to $11.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $18.00.

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.