Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH) Stake Lowered by Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lessened its holdings in Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH) by 7.0% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,295,568 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 97,169 shares during the quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s holdings in Ashland were worth $109,229,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of ASH. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Ashland by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,658,237 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $224,118,000 after buying an additional 62,182 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in shares of Ashland by 7.3% during the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,424,801 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $204,435,000 after buying an additional 164,468 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its position in shares of Ashland by 18.2% during the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,671,593 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $140,932,000 after buying an additional 256,828 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its position in shares of Ashland by 17.9% during the fourth quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 1,656,654 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $139,673,000 after buying an additional 252,104 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ceredex Value Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Ashland by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC now owns 689,517 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $58,133,000 after buying an additional 21,667 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.95% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on ASH. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Ashland from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Ashland from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $100.00 to $112.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Ashland from $101.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Ashland from $114.00 to $116.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, TheStreet raised shares of Ashland from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $106.44.

Ashland Price Performance

Shares of ASH traded down $1.47 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $95.91. 456,669 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 336,622. Ashland Inc. has a one year low of $70.82 and a one year high of $102.50. The company has a current ratio of 3.15, a quick ratio of 1.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The business has a 50-day moving average of $97.54 and a 200 day moving average of $91.65. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.44, a PEG ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 0.92.

Ashland (NYSE:ASH) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $1.27 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.14 by $0.13. Ashland had a net margin of 9.09% and a return on equity of 5.57%. The business had revenue of $575.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $574.64 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.43 earnings per share. Ashland’s revenue was down 4.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Ashland Inc. will post 4.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ashland Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, June 15th. Investors of record on Saturday, June 1st were issued a $0.405 dividend. This is a positive change from Ashland’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.62 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 31st. Ashland’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.97%.

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.