American Century Companies Inc. Grows Holdings in Ardmore Shipping Corporation $ASC

American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in Ardmore Shipping Corporation (NYSE:ASC) by 4.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,642,656 shares of the shipping company’s stock after purchasing an additional 69,788 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. owned about 4.04% of Ardmore Shipping worth $15,769,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pinnacle Holdings LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ardmore Shipping in the first quarter valued at $27,000. MeadowBrook Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Ardmore Shipping during the 2nd quarter valued at about $33,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Ardmore Shipping by 288.1% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 6,310 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $61,000 after acquiring an additional 4,684 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC grew its position in Ardmore Shipping by 320.8% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 7,735 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $74,000 after acquiring an additional 5,897 shares in the last quarter. Finally, R Squared Ltd purchased a new stake in Ardmore Shipping during the second quarter worth about $126,000. 62.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on ASC. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Ardmore Shipping in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $15.00 target price on shares of Ardmore Shipping in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Ardmore Shipping from $13.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered Ardmore Shipping from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $13.67.

Ardmore Shipping Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of Ardmore Shipping stock opened at $12.10 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 4.46, a quick ratio of 4.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $12.23 and a 200-day simple moving average of $11.23. The stock has a market cap of $491.30 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.51 and a beta of -0.11. Ardmore Shipping Corporation has a 12-month low of $8.32 and a 12-month high of $13.85.

Ardmore Shipping (NYSE:ASC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The shipping company reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by $0.03. Ardmore Shipping had a net margin of 11.50% and a return on equity of 6.69%. The firm had revenue of $81.25 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $48.38 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.55 earnings per share. Ardmore Shipping’s quarterly revenue was down 15.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Ardmore Shipping Corporation will post 1.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ardmore Shipping Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 12th. Investors of record on Friday, November 28th will be given a $0.10 dividend. This is a boost from Ardmore Shipping’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.07. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 28th. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.3%. Ardmore Shipping’s payout ratio is currently 51.28%.

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.