Standard Investments LLC Makes New $107.32 Million Investment in Ashland Inc. $ASH

Standard Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 2,240,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $107,318,000. Ashland accounts for approximately 5.3% of Standard Investments LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 8th largest holding. Standard Investments LLC owned about 4.90% of Ashland at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in ASH. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Ashland by 284.3% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 3,454,646 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $172,318,000 after purchasing an additional 2,555,585 shares during the period. 1832 Asset Management L.P. raised its position in shares of Ashland by 11.7% in the second quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,371,755 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $68,972,000 after purchasing an additional 143,230 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ashland by 807.8% during the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,123,804 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $53,841,000 after buying an additional 1,000,006 shares during the last quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Ashland by 32.5% during the 2nd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 575,146 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $28,918,000 after buying an additional 140,957 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ashland by 11.0% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 525,252 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $25,165,000 after buying an additional 52,123 shares during the period. 93.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ASH has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley set a $63.00 price target on shares of Ashland in a report on Monday, February 9th. Zacks Research upgraded Ashland from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded Ashland from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $61.00 to $71.00 in a research note on Monday, December 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Ashland from $77.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating and issued a $70.00 price target on shares of Ashland in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. 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 currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $67.67.

Ashland Price Performance

Shares of Ashland stock opened at $50.03 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.61, a current ratio of 3.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 0.42. Ashland Inc. has a twelve month low of $45.21 and a twelve month high of $65.64. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $60.48 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $55.64.

Ashland (NYSE:ASH) last announced its earnings results on Monday, February 2nd. The basic materials company reported $0.26 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.03. Ashland had a negative net margin of 38.26% and a positive return on equity of 7.58%. The company had revenue of $386.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $401.42 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.28 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Ashland Inc. will post 4.27 EPS for the current year.

Ashland Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Sunday, March 1st were paid a dividend of $0.415 per share. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.3%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 27th. Ashland’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.