Ardmore Shipping Co. (NYSE:ASC) Declares $0.18 Quarterly Dividend

Ardmore Shipping Co. (NYSE:ASC) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, November 6th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be given a dividend of 0.18 per share by the shipping company on Friday, December 13th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th.

Ardmore Shipping has raised its dividend payment by an average of 184.4% per year over the last three years. Ardmore Shipping has a dividend payout ratio of 38.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Ardmore Shipping to earn $1.78 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.72 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 40.4%.

Ardmore Shipping Stock Down 2.9 %

ASC opened at $11.50 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $15.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is $18.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 3.26 and a current ratio of 3.57. Ardmore Shipping has a twelve month low of $11.44 and a twelve month high of $23.44. The firm has a market cap of $480.95 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 0.37.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on ASC. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on shares of Ardmore Shipping from $20.00 to $17.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Fearnley Fonds raised Ardmore Shipping to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Stifel Nicolaus cut Ardmore Shipping from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $24.00 to $17.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com cut Ardmore Shipping from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $20.00.

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.