Critical Analysis: Ardmore Shipping (NYSE:ASC) & Heidmar Maritime (NASDAQ:HMR)

Heidmar Maritime (NASDAQ:HMR) and Ardmore Shipping (NYSE:ASC) are both small-cap transportation companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, earnings, profitability, dividends, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Heidmar Maritime and Ardmore Shipping, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Heidmar Maritime	1	0	1	0	2.00
Ardmore Shipping	0	3	2	1	2.67

Heidmar Maritime currently has a consensus target price of $5.00, suggesting a potential upside of 331.03%. Ardmore Shipping has a consensus target price of $13.67, suggesting a potential upside of 4.53%. Given Heidmar Maritime’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Heidmar Maritime is more favorable than Ardmore Shipping.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

62.2% of Ardmore Shipping shares are held by institutional investors. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Heidmar Maritime and Ardmore Shipping’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Heidmar Maritime	N/A	N/A	N/A
Ardmore Shipping	11.50%	6.69%	5.69%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Heidmar Maritime and Ardmore Shipping”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Heidmar Maritime	$28.95 million	2.34	$1.91 million	$0.01	116.00
Ardmore Shipping	$309.33 million	1.72	$133.01 million	$0.78	16.76

Ardmore Shipping has higher revenue and earnings than Heidmar Maritime. Ardmore Shipping is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Heidmar Maritime, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Ardmore Shipping beats Heidmar Maritime on 10 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Heidmar Maritime

Heidmar Maritime Holdings Corp. provides commercial and pool management services to the dry bulk, crude oil, and refined petroleum product tanker markets worldwide. It offers tanker pool and commercial management, dry bulk pool and commercial management, and fuel services. The company also operates a platform to invest in tanker or drybulk vessels offering a range of customized services for the investor, as well as engages in the sale and purchase of second-hand vessels and newbuilds in the tanker and drybulk sectors. In addition, it develops and operates eFleetWatch, a digital platform in the commercial management space, which provides pool partners with access to the data that they require for their own reporting and monitoring of their vessels. The company was founded in 1984 and is based in Piraeus, Greece.

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. Ardmore Shipping Corporation was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Pembroke, Bermuda.