Ardmore Shipping's largest investor has slashed its position by more than half, as the Irish tanker owner's share price languishes despite record fixtures.
According to Securities and Exchange Commission filings, Russell Investments Group has sold more than 2.2m shares in the New York-listed company, bringing its holding to less than 5%, at 1.5m shares.
Seattle-based Russell Investments became Ardmore's top shareholder in January 2019, taking a 3.1m-share position, or 9.4% of the company. It grew that stake to 3.7m, or 11.2% of the company, three months later.
Russell Investments was listed as Ardmore's biggest shareholder in its annual report, filed on 3 April.
On Tuesday, Ardmore booked a $6.5m profit for the first three months of 2020 and trumpeted MR earnings above $70,000 per day — including one fixture for $72,000 per day, the equivalent of a $200,000 per day VLCC fixture.
However, Ardmore's share price lost $0.19, closing at $6.03.
Its share price has fallen further, losing another $0.30 and sliding to $5.74 in midday trading on Friday.
Broad downturn
The declines come amid a broader downturn in tanker stocks in the face of record earnings, as firming oil prices and analyst predictions of a rapid post-coronavirus economic reboot send investors fleeing.
Fellow product tanker owner Scorpio Tankers saw its share price lose $3.40, closing at $19.04, after reporting $46.6m in profit for the first quarter on Wednesday, beating analyst expectations.
Crude tanker players DHT Holdings and Euronav experienced similar slides after big earnings, falling $0.83 to $6.31 and $0.30 to $10.03, respectively.
The sale knocks Russell Investments out of Ardmore's top three shareholders, with Aristotle Capital Boston taking the lead spot with 3.34m shares or just over 10%.
Dimensional Fund Advisors rose to second with 2.06m shares and Donald Smith & Co slid into third with 2.01m.
