Royce & Associates LP Sells 73,210 Shares of Ardmore Shipping Corporation $ASC

Royce & Associates LP trimmed its position in Ardmore Shipping Corporation (NYSE:ASC) by 9.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 739,530 shares of the shipping company’s stock after selling 73,210 shares during the quarter. Royce & Associates LP’s holdings in Ardmore Shipping were worth $8,778,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Ardmore Shipping in the second quarter worth about $38,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Ardmore Shipping by 1,689.0% in the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 8,444 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $81,000 after purchasing an additional 7,972 shares during the period. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its holdings in Ardmore Shipping by 536.3% during the 2nd quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 8,737 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $84,000 after buying an additional 7,364 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in Ardmore Shipping by 14.8% during the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 7,241 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $86,000 after purchasing an additional 931 shares during the period. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP purchased a new stake in Ardmore Shipping in the second quarter worth about $109,000. 62.22% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on ASC shares. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $15.00 price target on shares of Ardmore Shipping in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Ardmore Shipping in a research note on Wednesday, December 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ardmore Shipping currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $15.00.

Ardmore Shipping Trading Down 1.7%

ASC opened at $16.43 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $667.18 million, a PE ratio of 18.46 and a beta of -0.16. Ardmore Shipping Corporation has a one year low of $8.32 and a one year high of $16.91. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $12.72 and its 200 day moving average price is $12.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 3.98 and a current ratio of 4.33.

Ardmore Shipping (NYSE:ASC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The shipping company reported $0.28 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $82.91 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $51.00 million. Ardmore Shipping had a return on equity of 7.02% and a net margin of 13.22%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Ardmore Shipping Corporation will post 1.06 EPS for the current year.

Ardmore Shipping Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 27th will be issued a $0.09 dividend. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 27th. Ardmore Shipping’s payout ratio is presently 40.45%.

Ardmore Shipping Profile

Ardmore Shipping Corporation is a Bermuda-based provider of seaborne transportation services for refined petroleum products. The company owns and operates a modern fleet of product tankers, including medium-range (MR), long-range 2 (LR2) and Aframax vessels. Ardmore Shipping focuses on the ocean carriage of clean and dirty petroleum products under time charters, bareboat charters and spot voyages, serving a diverse customer base that includes major oil companies and trading houses.

Since its founding in 2005, Ardmore Shipping has grown its fleet through newbuilding contracts, second-hand acquisitions and fleet renewals, aiming to maintain a high quality, fuel-efficient profile.