Yousif Capital Management LLC Reduces Stock Position in Ashland Inc. $ASH

Yousif Capital Management LLC cut its holdings in shares of Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH) by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 16,557 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 526 shares during the quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Ashland were worth $832,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Abound Wealth Management acquired a new position in shares of Ashland in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $40,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Ashland by 2,736.0% in the 1st quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 709 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 684 shares in the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP grew its position in shares of Ashland by 63.9% in the 1st quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 834 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 325 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of Ashland by 93.5% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,155 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $58,000 after acquiring an additional 558 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in shares of Ashland by 44.4% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,291 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $65,000 after acquiring an additional 397 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.95% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ASH has been the subject of several research reports. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Ashland from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Argus decreased their target price on Ashland from $70.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 26th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Ashland in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Ashland from $73.00 to $64.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Mizuho reduced their price objective on Ashland from $58.00 to $54.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ashland presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $60.43.

Ashland Trading Down 2.1%

Shares of Ashland stock opened at $49.57 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.33, a current ratio of 2.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The firm has a market cap of $2.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 11.64 and a beta of 0.49. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $51.64 and a 200-day simple moving average of $51.28. Ashland Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $45.21 and a fifty-two week high of $88.89.

Ashland (NYSE:ASH) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, June 9th. The basic materials company reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The company had revenue of $509.00 million for the quarter. Ashland had a positive return on equity of 6.82% and a negative net margin of 46.01%. Ashland has set its FY 2022 guidance at EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Ashland Inc. will post 4.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ashland Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 1st were given a dividend of $0.415 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 29th. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.3%. Ashland’s payout ratio is -8.86%.

About Ashland

Ashland Inc provides additives and specialty ingredients in the North and Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and internationally. It operates through Life Sciences, Personal Care, Specialty Additives, and Intermediates segments. The Life Sciences segment offers pharmaceutical solutions, including controlled release polymers, disintegrants, tablet coatings, thickeners, solubilizers, and tablet binders; nutrition solutions, such as thickeners, stabilizers, emulsifiers, and additives; and nutraceutical solutions comprising products for weight management, joint comfort, stomach and intestinal health, sports nutrition, and general wellness, as well as custom formulation, toll processing, and particle engineering solutions.