Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH) Announces $0.42 Quarterly Dividend

Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, January 19th. Investors of record on Sunday, March 1st will be paid a dividend of 0.415 per share by the basic materials company on Sunday, March 15th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 27th.

Ashland has raised its dividend payment by an average of 0.1%per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 16 consecutive years. Ashland has a payout ratio of 34.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Ashland to earn $5.29 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.66 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 31.4%.

Ashland Price Performance

ASH stock opened at $62.93 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $57.46 and its 200 day moving average price is $53.62. The firm has a market cap of $2.88 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.43, a PEG ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a current ratio of 2.85. Ashland has a 1 year low of $45.21 and a 1 year high of $73.31.

Ashland (NYSE:ASH) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $1.08 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.17 by ($0.09). Ashland had a positive return on equity of 7.07% and a negative net margin of 46.25%.The company had revenue of $477.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $481.97 million. The business’s revenue was down 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.26 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Ashland will post 4.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ASH has been the topic of several analyst reports. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on shares of Ashland from $62.00 to $53.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 11th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Ashland from $51.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 19th. Mizuho boosted their price target on Ashland from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 18th. Wall Street Zen raised Ashland from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 22nd. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded Ashland from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ashland currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $65.13.

Ashland Company Profile

Ashland Inc is a global specialty chemicals company that develops, manufactures and supplies a broad range of performance and process-critical additives, ingredients and technologies. Its portfolio spans performance additives for coatings, adhesives and sealants; specialty ingredients for personal care and pharmaceutical applications; and process aids used in water treatment and other industrial processes. Ashland aims to address customer challenges by delivering tailored solutions that improve product performance, processing efficiency and sustainability outcomes.

Founded in 1924 as the Ashland Oil & Refining Company, the firm gradually expanded into the specialty chemicals sector over the second half of the 20th century.