Ardmore Shipping (NYSE:ASC) Rating Lowered to Hold at Stifel Nicolaus

Ardmore Shipping (NYSE:ASC) was downgraded by stock analysts at Stifel Nicolaus from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Wednesday, FinViz reports. They presently have a $17.00 target price on the shipping company’s stock, down from their previous target price of $24.00. Stifel Nicolaus’ price objective points to a potential upside of 4.71% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Ardmore Shipping from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Fearnley Fonds raised shares of Ardmore Shipping to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of Ardmore Shipping from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Ardmore Shipping from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Ardmore Shipping presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $22.33.

Ardmore Shipping Stock Performance

Shares of Ardmore Shipping stock opened at $16.24 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 3.50 and a quick ratio of 3.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $659.58 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.22 and a beta of 0.35. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $17.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $19.42. Ardmore Shipping has a 12 month low of $12.69 and a 12 month high of $23.44.

Ardmore Shipping (NYSE:ASC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The shipping company reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.08 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $121.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $80.51 million. Ardmore Shipping had a net margin of 36.31% and a return on equity of 24.26%. Ardmore Shipping’s revenue was up 32.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.57 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Ardmore Shipping will post 3.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ASC. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Ardmore Shipping by 23.9% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 696,697 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $9,816,000 after acquiring an additional 134,233 shares during the last quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Ardmore Shipping during the 1st quarter valued at about $54,000. Norden Group LLC acquired a new stake in Ardmore Shipping during the 1st quarter worth approximately $166,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Ardmore Shipping during the 1st quarter worth approximately $376,000. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its position in Ardmore Shipping by 83.9% during the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 20,440 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $336,000 after purchasing an additional 9,325 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.22% of the company’s stock.

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.