Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership Grows Stake in Ardmore Shipping Co. (NYSE:ASC)

Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in shares of Ardmore Shipping Co. (NYSE:ASC) by 5.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,309,826 shares of the shipping company’s stock after purchasing an additional 63,769 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership owned 3.13% of Ardmore Shipping worth $15,914,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Walleye Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Ardmore Shipping in the third quarter worth $1,164,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Ardmore Shipping by 255.4% in the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 465,777 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $5,659,000 after acquiring an additional 334,704 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its holdings in Ardmore Shipping by 40.2% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 24,467 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $443,000 after acquiring an additional 7,010 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in Ardmore Shipping by 301.1% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 58,431 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $1,058,000 after purchasing an additional 43,862 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bleakley Financial Group LLC boosted its position in Ardmore Shipping by 406.6% during the fourth quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 97,836 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $1,189,000 after purchasing an additional 78,524 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 62.22% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently issued reports on ASC. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $17.00 price target on shares of Ardmore Shipping in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Ardmore Shipping from $13.00 to $11.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $18.00.

Ardmore Shipping Trading Down 3.7 %

Shares of ASC opened at $8.72 on Friday. Ardmore Shipping Co. has a twelve month low of $8.54 and a twelve month high of $23.44. The stock has a market cap of $352.57 million, a PE ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.16. The company has a quick ratio of 3.86, a current ratio of 4.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $10.35 and its 200-day moving average price is $12.58.

Ardmore Shipping (NYSE:ASC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The shipping company reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by ($0.08). Ardmore Shipping had a return on equity of 20.48% and a net margin of 32.78%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Ardmore Shipping Co. will post 1.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ardmore Shipping Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. Ardmore Shipping’s payout ratio is 10.46%.

Ardmore Shipping 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.