Ardmore Shipping saw fourth quarter rates push it back to profitability — and issue its first dividend since 2016.
The Ireland-based, New York-listed tanker owner posted Tuesday morning net income of $1.9m for the last three months of 2019, or $0.06 on a per share basis, or $2.5m profit and $0.08 per share when adjusted for deferred finance fees.
While the earnings per share figure came in slightly less than Wall Street expectations, the modest profit allowed Ardmore to pay a $0.05 per share dividend to shareholders for the first time in more than three years.
"The product tanker market has performed very well over the past few months with rates rising to levels not seen since 2015, as a consequence of IMO 2020 demand and winter market conditions, and underpinned by strong product tanker supply-demand fundamentals," said chief executive Anthony Gurnee.
Ardmore's fleet of 19 MR tankers earned an average time charter equivalent rate of $17,725 per day, while its six chemical tankers earned $14,284 per day.
Both figures were improvements over the full year 2019 averages of $15,382 per day for MRs and $12,420 per day for the chemical tankers.
Revenue grew to $60.7m for the fourth quarter, a $2.3m increase from the $58.4m for the fourth quarter of 2018. Expenses decreased by $7.5m from $30.1m to $22.6m over the same period.
The company operated 28 vessels in the fourth quarter of 2018 versus 25 in the fourth quarter of 2019.
Its dividend policy is to pay out 60% of earnings from continuing operations.
The last time it issued a dividend was in the third quarter of 2016, when it paid out $0.11 per share.
In early trading Tuesday, shares were up $0.63, or nearly 13%, to $6.
