Ardmore Shipping (ASC) & Its Peers Critical Analysis

Ardmore Shipping (NYSE:ASC) is one of 1,051 publicly-traded companies in the “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” industry, but how does it contrast to its rivals? We will compare Ardmore Shipping to similar businesses based on the strength of its analyst recommendations, dividends, risk, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership and earnings.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

62.2% of Ardmore Shipping shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 30.8% of shares of all “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” companies are owned by institutional investors. 15.3% of shares of all “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

Ardmore Shipping has a beta of 0.15, indicating that its stock price is 85% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ardmore Shipping’s rivals have a beta of -3.76, indicating that their average stock price is 476% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Ardmore Shipping pays an annual dividend of $1.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.2%. Ardmore Shipping pays out 40.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” companies pay a dividend yield of 9.2% and pay out -133.7% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Ardmore Shipping lags its rivals as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Profitability

This table compares Ardmore Shipping and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ardmore Shipping	30.11%	15.38%	13.22%
Ardmore Shipping Competitors	-456.96%	19.46%	6.50%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Ardmore Shipping and its rivals, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ardmore Shipping	0	1	1	0	2.50
Ardmore Shipping Competitors	5982	26994	40850	2423	2.52

Ardmore Shipping presently has a consensus target price of $22.00, indicating a potential upside of 26.51%. As a group, “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” companies have a potential upside of 28.97%. Given Ardmore Shipping’s rivals stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Ardmore Shipping has less favorable growth aspects than its rivals.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Ardmore Shipping and its rivals gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ardmore Shipping	$374.75 million	$41.01 million	6.46
Ardmore Shipping Competitors	$14.81 billion	$5.51 billion	-0.95

Ardmore Shipping’s rivals have higher revenue and earnings than Ardmore Shipping. Ardmore Shipping is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Summary

Ardmore Shipping rivals beat Ardmore Shipping on 10 of the 15 factors compared.

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. Ardmore Shipping Corporation was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Pembroke, Bermuda.