SG Americas Securities LLC Acquires 126,238 Shares of Ashland Inc. $ASH

SG Americas Securities LLC raised its holdings in Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH) by 126.8% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 225,832 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 126,238 shares during the quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC’s holdings in Ashland were worth $13,250,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Harbour Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Ashland during the 4th quarter valued at $423,000. Hilltop National Bank boosted its holdings in Ashland by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Hilltop National Bank now owns 4,940 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $290,000 after purchasing an additional 203 shares in the last quarter. Mirabella Financial Services LLP acquired a new position in Ashland during the third quarter worth $294,000. Standard Investments LLC bought a new position in Ashland during the third quarter valued at about $107,318,000. Finally, Allworth Financial LP raised its holdings in Ashland by 28.4% during the third quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,790 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $86,000 after buying an additional 396 shares in the last quarter. 93.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on ASH. Evercore set a $62.00 price target on Ashland in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. Mizuho raised their price objective on Ashland from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 18th. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $73.00 target price on shares of Ashland in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Zacks Research raised Ashland from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $70.00 price target on shares of Ashland in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ashland presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $66.11.

Ashland Trading Down 1.8%

Ashland stock opened at $53.23 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a current ratio of 3.15. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $58.85 and its 200-day simple moving average is $55.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.44 billion, a PE ratio of -3.52, a PEG ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 0.42. Ashland Inc. has a 52 week low of $45.21 and a 52 week high of $65.64.

Ashland (NYSE:ASH) last announced its earnings results 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 firm 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.28 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Ashland Inc. will post 4.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Ashland Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Sunday, March 1st were issued a dividend of $0.415 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 27th. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.1%. Ashland’s payout ratio is -10.99%.

Ashland 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.