American Century Companies Inc. Acquires 1,000,006 Shares of Ashland Inc. $ASH

American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH) by 807.8% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,123,804 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,000,006 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc.’s holdings in Ashland were worth $53,841,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd acquired a new position in Ashland during the 3rd quarter worth about $53,000. US Bancorp DE increased its stake in shares of Ashland by 28.9% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 11,703 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $561,000 after buying an additional 2,623 shares during the period. Waddell & Associates LLC raised its position in shares of Ashland by 4.6% during the third quarter. Waddell & Associates LLC now owns 4,789 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $229,000 after acquiring an additional 209 shares during the last quarter. AXQ Capital LP bought a new position in shares of Ashland during the third quarter worth about $382,000. Finally, Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ashland by 23.2% in the third quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. now owns 19,188 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $919,000 after acquiring an additional 3,616 shares during the period. 93.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley set a $63.00 target price on shares of Ashland in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Ashland from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Ashland from $77.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $73.00 target price on shares of Ashland in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Finally, Argus upped their price target on shares of Ashland from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 12th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ashland presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $67.67.

Ashland Price Performance

ASH stock opened at $57.43 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 3.15 and a quick ratio of 1.61. The company’s 50-day moving average is $61.80 and its 200-day moving average is $55.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.63 billion, a PE ratio of -3.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 0.42. Ashland Inc. has a 1 year low of $45.21 and a 1 year high of $65.64.

Ashland (NYSE:ASH) last issued its earnings results on Monday, February 2nd. The basic materials company reported $0.26 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.03. Ashland had a positive return on equity of 7.58% and a negative net margin of 38.26%.The business had revenue of $386.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $401.42 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.28 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Ashland Inc. will post 4.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ashland Announces Dividend

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

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.