MJP Associates Inc. ADV Purchases New Position in Ardmore Shipping Co. (NYSE:ASC)

MJP Associates Inc. ADV purchased a new stake in shares of Ardmore Shipping Co. (NYSE:ASC) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund purchased 10,000 shares of the shipping company’s stock, valued at approximately $141,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ardmore Shipping by 43.4% during the 3rd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 2,848,449 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $26,006,000 after acquiring an additional 862,349 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Ardmore Shipping by 5.8% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,656,589 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $32,808,000 after acquiring an additional 145,652 shares during the period. Aristotle Capital Boston LLC lifted its position in shares of Ardmore Shipping by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Aristotle Capital Boston LLC now owns 2,029,088 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $25,059,000 after acquiring an additional 31,645 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in shares of Ardmore Shipping by 35.2% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 913,151 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $13,159,000 after acquiring an additional 237,920 shares during the period. Finally, Millennium Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Ardmore Shipping by 519.5% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 853,129 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $5,946,000 after acquiring an additional 715,406 shares during the period. 62.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ardmore Shipping Stock Performance

NYSE ASC traded up $0.07 during trading on Thursday, hitting $16.42. 570,203 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 667,621. The stock has a market capitalization of $667.14 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.99 and a beta of 0.39. Ardmore Shipping Co. has a 12-month low of $11.59 and a 12-month high of $17.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 3.38 and a current ratio of 3.75. The business has a 50 day moving average of $16.13 and a 200-day moving average of $14.46.

Ardmore Shipping (NYSE:ASC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The shipping company reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $98.80 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.26 million. Ardmore Shipping had a net margin of 29.50% and a return on equity of 22.76%. The company’s revenue was down 25.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Ardmore Shipping Co. will post 2.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ardmore Shipping Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were given a $0.21 dividend. This is a positive change from Ardmore Shipping’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.16. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 28th. Ardmore Shipping’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 30.77%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on ASC. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Ardmore Shipping from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $20.00 price target on shares of Ardmore Shipping in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Ardmore Shipping from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th.

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.