Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Increases Position in Ashland Inc. $ASH

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH) by 12.0% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,496,021 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 267,741 shares during the quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned approximately 5.45% of Ashland worth $138,793,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings in Ashland by 59.0% during the second quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 671 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 249 shares during the period. Danske Bank A S bought a new position in shares of Ashland in the third quarter worth about $38,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd grew its position in shares of Ashland by 398.3% during the third quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 1,460 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $70,000 after purchasing an additional 1,167 shares in the last quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. raised its stake in Ashland by 535.8% during the 4th quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 1,348 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $79,000 after purchasing an additional 1,136 shares during the period. Finally, Allworth Financial LP raised its stake in Ashland by 28.4% during the 3rd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,790 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $86,000 after purchasing an additional 396 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 93.95% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on ASH. Wolfe Research restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Ashland in a research note on Monday. Seaport Research Partners upgraded shares of Ashland from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $75.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Ashland from $60.00 to $50.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Ashland from a “sell (d)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $58.00 price target on shares of Ashland in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ashland currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $65.20.

Ashland Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of ASH opened at $66.35 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 3.06 and a quick ratio of 1.78. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 0.41. Ashland Inc. has a 1 year low of $46.29 and a 1 year high of $69.66. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $63.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $59.87.

Ashland (NYSE:ASH) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The basic materials company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by ($0.06). Ashland had a negative net margin of 39.03% and a positive return on equity of 8.06%. The business had revenue of $482.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $485.61 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.99 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Ashland Inc. will post 3.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ashland Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 1st were issued a $0.42 dividend. 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.5%. Ashland’s payout ratio is presently -10.89%.

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.