Ashland Inc. $ASH Shares Sold by Quantbot Technologies LP

Quantbot Technologies LP trimmed its stake in shares of Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH) by 36.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 30,555 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 17,892 shares during the quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP’s holdings in Ashland were worth $1,464,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. 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 buying an additional 2,555,585 shares during the period. Ieq Capital LLC raised its holdings in Ashland by 353.0% in the second quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 250,085 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $12,574,000 after acquiring an additional 194,880 shares in the last quarter. Atlantic Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Ashland by 137.1% in the second quarter. Atlantic Investment Management Inc. now owns 296,320 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $14,899,000 after acquiring an additional 171,320 shares during the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. grew its holdings in Ashland by 11.7% during the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,371,755 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $68,972,000 after acquiring an additional 143,230 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd increased its position in shares of Ashland by 32.5% in the 2nd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 575,146 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $28,918,000 after purchasing an additional 140,957 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.95% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $70.00 target price on shares of Ashland in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Mizuho increased their price objective on Ashland from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 18th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Ashland in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Argus upped their price target on Ashland from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Ashland from $51.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, December 19th. Six 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 MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $67.67.

Ashland Trading Down 4.3%

NYSE:ASH opened at $57.43 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.63 billion, a PE ratio of -3.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 0.42. Ashland Inc. has a 52-week low of $45.21 and a 52-week high of $65.64. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $61.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $55.84. The company has a quick ratio of 1.61, a current ratio of 3.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74.

Ashland (NYSE:ASH) last posted 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 business had revenue of $386.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $401.42 million. Ashland had a positive return on equity of 7.58% and a negative net margin of 38.26%.The company’s revenue was down 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.28 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Ashland Inc. will post 4.27 EPS for the current year.

Ashland Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Sunday, March 1st will be paid a $0.415 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 27th. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.9%. Ashland’s payout ratio is currently -10.99%.

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.