Ardmore Shipping Co. (NYSE:ASC) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.08

Ardmore Shipping Co. (NYSE:ASC) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 13th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a dividend of 0.08 per share by the shipping company on Friday, March 14th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th.

Ardmore Shipping has a payout ratio of 24.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Ardmore Shipping to earn $1.38 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.32 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 23.2%.

Ardmore Shipping Stock Performance

Shares of Ardmore Shipping stock opened at $9.81 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $11.70 and a 200 day moving average price of $14.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $410.45 million, a P/E ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 0.25. The company has a quick ratio of 3.86, a current ratio of 4.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. Ardmore Shipping has a 52 week low of $9.79 and a 52 week high of $23.44.

Ardmore Shipping (NYSE:ASC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The shipping company reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by ($0.08). Ardmore Shipping had a net margin of 32.78% and a return on equity of 20.48%. Sell-side analysts expect that Ardmore Shipping will post 1.06 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on ASC. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Ardmore Shipping from $13.00 to $11.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $17.00 target price on shares of Ardmore Shipping in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ardmore Shipping has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $18.00.

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.