Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd Decreases Position in Ashland Inc. $ASH

Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd cut its holdings in Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH) by 37.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 13,126 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 7,841 shares during the period. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd’s holdings in Ashland were worth $730,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Standard Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ashland in the 3rd quarter valued at about $107,318,000. Invenomic Capital Management LP grew its position in Ashland by 92.9% during the 3rd quarter. Invenomic Capital Management LP now owns 147,482 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $7,066,000 after acquiring an additional 71,044 shares during the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. grew its position in Ashland by 23.8% during the 4th quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,801,062 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $105,668,000 after acquiring an additional 345,919 shares during the last quarter. Thames Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Ashland in the 4th quarter worth approximately $10,342,000. Finally, Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. purchased a new position in Ashland in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,167,000. 93.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ASH has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Seaport Research Partners raised Ashland from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $75.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Morgan Stanley set a $58.00 target price on shares of Ashland in a research note on Monday, May 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Ashland from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Argus cut their price target on shares of Ashland from $70.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 23rd. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Ashland from $66.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ashland presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.78.

Ashland Stock Performance

Ashland stock opened at $66.72 on Monday. Ashland Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $46.29 and a fifty-two week high of $68.25. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $60.62 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $59.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 1.78 and a current ratio of 3.06. The stock has a market cap of $3.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.33, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.41.

Ashland (NYSE:ASH) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The basic materials company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.97 by ($0.06). The firm had revenue of $482.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $485.61 million. Ashland had a positive return on equity of 8.06% and a negative net margin of 39.03%.The firm’s revenue was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.99 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Ashland Inc. will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ashland Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 1st were given a dividend of $0.42 per share. This is an increase from Ashland’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 1st. Ashland’s payout ratio is -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.