Ashland (NYSE:ASH) Upgraded at Zacks Research

Zacks Research upgraded shares of Ashland (NYSE:ASH) from a strong sell rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Thursday morning,Zacks.com reports.

ASH has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating and set a $70.00 price objective on shares of Ashland in a report on Wednesday. Evercore reduced their target price on shares of Ashland from $62.00 to $53.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Ashland from $51.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 19th. Argus raised their target price on shares of Ashland from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Ashland from $77.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $66.33.

Ashland Stock Up 1.8%

ASH opened at $64.24 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $60.72 and its 200 day simple moving average is $54.58. Ashland has a 1-year low of $45.21 and a 1-year high of $67.39. The stock has a market cap of $2.94 billion, a PE ratio of -4.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a current ratio of 3.15, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74.

Ashland (NYSE:ASH) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 2nd. The basic materials company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $386.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $401.42 million. Ashland had a negative net margin of 38.26% and a positive return on equity of 7.58%. The company’s revenue was down 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.28 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Ashland will post 4.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Ashland Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Sunday, March 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.415 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 27th. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.6%. Ashland’s payout ratio is -10.99%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ASH. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ashland by 284.3% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 3,454,646 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $172,318,000 after purchasing an additional 2,555,585 shares in the last quarter. Standard Investments LLC bought a new position in Ashland in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $107,318,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its position in Ashland by 1,080,682.0% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,437,440 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $84,335,000 after buying an additional 1,437,307 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ashland by 807.8% during the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,123,804 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $53,841,000 after buying an additional 1,000,006 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its holdings in shares of Ashland by 1,804.0% during the fourth quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,021,264 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $59,918,000 after buying an additional 967,626 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.95% of the company’s stock.

About Ashland

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.