Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH) has received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the eleven analysts that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $63.7778.

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley set a $58.00 price target on shares of Ashland in a research note on Monday, May 4th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Ashland from $66.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Ashland from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $60.00 target price on shares of Ashland in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded Ashland from a “sell (d)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th.

Institutional Trading of Ashland

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ASH. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ashland by 23.8% in the 4th quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,801,062 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $105,668,000 after acquiring an additional 345,919 shares during the last quarter. Thames Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Ashland during the 4th quarter valued at $10,342,000. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ashland by 126.8% during the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 225,832 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $13,250,000 after purchasing an additional 126,238 shares during the last quarter. ING Groep NV purchased a new position in Ashland in the 4th quarter worth $9,974,000. Finally, Sivia Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in Ashland in the 2nd quarter worth $264,000. Institutional investors own 93.95% of the company’s stock.

Ashland Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ASH opened at $68.68 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $62.00 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $59.54. Ashland has a twelve month low of $46.29 and a twelve month high of $69.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.15 billion, a P/E ratio of -4.45, a P/E/G ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a quick ratio of 1.78, a current ratio of 3.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74.

Ashland (NYSE:ASH) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 28th. The basic materials company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.97 by ($0.06). The company had revenue of $482.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $485.61 million. Ashland had a positive return on equity of 8.06% and a negative net margin of 39.03%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.99 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Ashland will post 3.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ashland Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 1st were given a dividend of $0.42 per share. This is a boost from Ashland’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 1st. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. Ashland’s dividend payout ratio is currently -10.89%.

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.