Ardmore Shipping Co. (NYSE:ASC) to Issue Dividend of $0.38

Ardmore Shipping Co. (NYSE:ASC) declared a dividend on Wednesday, July 31st, NASDAQ reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 30th will be given a dividend of 0.38 per share by the shipping company on Friday, September 13th. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 30th.

Ardmore Shipping has increased its dividend by an average of 184.4% per year over the last three years. Ardmore Shipping has a dividend payout ratio of 41.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Ardmore Shipping to earn $2.29 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.24 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 54.1%.

Ardmore Shipping Stock Up 3.6 %

Ardmore Shipping stock opened at $21.67 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $21.61 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $18.54. The firm has a market cap of $880.45 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.30 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.79. Ardmore Shipping has a fifty-two week low of $11.78 and a fifty-two week high of $23.44.

Ardmore Shipping (NYSE:ASC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 8th. The shipping company reported $0.92 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $106.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.46 million. Ardmore Shipping had a net margin of 29.15% and a return on equity of 21.06%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.04 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Ardmore Shipping will post 3.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on ASC shares. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Ardmore Shipping from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. StockNews.com raised shares of Ardmore Shipping from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 15th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Ardmore Shipping from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on shares of Ardmore Shipping from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday.

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.