Northern Trust Corp Purchases 17,201 Shares of Ardmore Shipping Co. (NYSE:ASC)

Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in Ardmore Shipping Co. (NYSE:ASC) by 5.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 345,744 shares of the shipping company’s stock after acquiring an additional 17,201 shares during the quarter. Northern Trust Corp owned 0.83% of Ardmore Shipping worth $4,201,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in ASC. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its stake in Ardmore Shipping by 46.3% in the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 25,561 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $311,000 after acquiring an additional 8,087 shares during the last quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management increased its stake in Ardmore Shipping by 84.6% in the fourth quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 21,925 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $266,000 after acquiring an additional 10,047 shares during the last quarter. Drive Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Ardmore Shipping in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $125,000. Private Management Group Inc. increased its stake in Ardmore Shipping by 16.3% in the fourth quarter. Private Management Group Inc. now owns 1,204,828 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $14,639,000 after acquiring an additional 168,731 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bleakley Financial Group LLC increased its stake in Ardmore Shipping by 406.6% in the fourth quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 97,836 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $1,189,000 after acquiring an additional 78,524 shares during the last quarter. 62.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ardmore Shipping Stock Performance

NYSE ASC opened at $9.60 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $9.59 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $10.80. The stock has a market cap of $389.99 million, a PE ratio of 3.14 and a beta of -0.02. Ardmore Shipping Co. has a fifty-two week low of $8.32 and a fifty-two week high of $23.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 3.86 and a current ratio of 4.24.

Ardmore Shipping (NYSE:ASC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The shipping company reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $74.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $43.04 million. Ardmore Shipping had a return on equity of 20.48% and a net margin of 32.78%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 30.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.92 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Ardmore Shipping Co. will post 1.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ASC has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on shares of Ardmore Shipping from $14.00 to $13.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $17.00 target price on shares of Ardmore Shipping in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of Ardmore Shipping from $13.00 to $11.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Fearnley Fonds raised shares of Ardmore Shipping from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ardmore Shipping currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $13.67.

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.