Virtu Financial LLC Takes $212,000 Position in Ardmore Shipping Co. (NYSE:ASC)

Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in Ardmore Shipping Co. (NYSE:ASC) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 15,033 shares of the shipping company’s stock, valued at approximately $212,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ASC. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Ardmore Shipping by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,758,657 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $38,870,000 after acquiring an additional 56,984 shares during the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its stake in Ardmore Shipping by 51.1% during the 4th quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 606,898 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $8,551,000 after acquiring an additional 205,245 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its stake in Ardmore Shipping by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 405,741 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $5,717,000 after acquiring an additional 9,517 shares during the last quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd boosted its stake in Ardmore Shipping by 23.6% during the 3rd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 291,861 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $3,797,000 after acquiring an additional 55,813 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Glenorchy Capital Ltd bought a new position in Ardmore Shipping during the 4th quarter valued at $2,081,000. 62.22% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Ardmore Shipping from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Ardmore Shipping from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 15th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Ardmore Shipping from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 19th.

Ardmore Shipping Trading Up 3.1 %

Ardmore Shipping stock opened at $22.39 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $20.20 and its 200-day moving average is $17.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.79 and a current ratio of 1.95. Ardmore Shipping Co. has a 1 year low of $11.59 and a 1 year high of $23.44. The company has a market cap of $909.71 million, a P/E ratio of 8.58 and a beta of 0.43.

Ardmore Shipping (NYSE:ASC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 8th. The shipping company reported $0.92 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.05. Ardmore Shipping had a net margin of 29.15% and a return on equity of 21.06%. The business had revenue of $106.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $72.46 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.04 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Ardmore Shipping Co. will post 3.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Ardmore Shipping Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 14th. Investors of record on Friday, May 31st were issued a $0.31 dividend. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.54%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 31st. This is a boost from Ardmore Shipping’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. Ardmore Shipping’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.51%.

Ardmore Shipping 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.