Critical Survey: Ardmore Shipping (ASC) vs. Its Peers

Ardmore Shipping (NYSE:ASC) is one of 1,050 public companies in the “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its rivals? We will compare Ardmore Shipping to similar businesses based on the strength of its valuation, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Ardmore Shipping and its rivals, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ardmore Shipping	0	0	3	0	3.00
Ardmore Shipping Competitors	5961	26926	40745	2403	2.52

Ardmore Shipping currently has a consensus price target of $18.50, suggesting a potential downside of 11.78%. As a group, “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” companies have a potential upside of 16.92%. Given Ardmore Shipping’s rivals higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Ardmore Shipping has less favorable growth aspects than its rivals.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Ardmore Shipping and its rivals revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ardmore Shipping	$310.20 million	$41.01 million	8.10
Ardmore Shipping Competitors	$10.76 billion	$5.51 billion	0.53

Ardmore Shipping’s rivals have higher revenue and earnings than Ardmore Shipping. Ardmore Shipping is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Dividends

Ardmore Shipping pays an annual dividend of $3.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 15.1%. Ardmore Shipping pays out 122.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. As a group, “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” companies pay a dividend yield of 8.4% and pay out -119.8% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

62.2% of Ardmore Shipping shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 30.8% of shares of all “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” companies are held by institutional investors. 15.3% of shares of all “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Ardmore Shipping and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ardmore Shipping	29.67%	15.24%	12.72%
Ardmore Shipping Competitors	-472.92%	19.47%	6.31%

Risk & Volatility

Ardmore Shipping has a beta of 0.11, suggesting that its share price is 89% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ardmore Shipping’s rivals have a beta of -4.03, suggesting that their average share price is 503% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Ardmore Shipping beats its rivals on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

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