Ardmore Shipping Co. (NYSE:ASC) to Issue Dividend Increase – $0.31 Per Share

Ardmore Shipping Co. (NYSE:ASC) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 9th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 31st will be given a dividend of 0.31 per share by the shipping company on Friday, June 14th. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 31st. This is a positive change from Ardmore Shipping’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21.

Ardmore Shipping has increased its dividend by an average of 184.4% per year over the last three years.

Ardmore Shipping Stock Performance

NYSE:ASC opened at $20.41 on Friday. Ardmore Shipping has a 1-year low of $11.59 and a 1-year high of $20.52. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $16.52 and a 200-day simple moving average of $15.31. The firm has a market cap of $829.20 million, a PE ratio of 7.48 and a beta of 0.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 3.75 and a quick ratio of 3.38.

Ardmore Shipping (NYSE:ASC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The shipping company reported $0.92 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.05. Ardmore Shipping had a return on equity of 22.76% and a net margin of 29.50%. The company had revenue of $106.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.46 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.04 EPS. Ardmore Shipping’s revenue was down 10.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Ardmore Shipping will post 2.72 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ASC has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Ardmore Shipping from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of Ardmore Shipping from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, StockNews.com raised Ardmore Shipping from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday.

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.