Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Purchases New Shares in Ashland Inc. $ASH

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new stake in shares of Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 106,746 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,936,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Hsbc Holdings PLC purchased a new position in Ashland in the fourth quarter worth about $12,183,000. Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ashland by 9.9% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 18,101 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,062,000 after purchasing an additional 1,629 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ashland by 12.7% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 6,784 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $398,000 after purchasing an additional 764 shares during the period. Kera Capital Partners Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ashland during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $463,000. Finally, Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV raised its holdings in Ashland by 9.2% during the 4th quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 31,954 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,875,000 after buying an additional 2,701 shares during the period. 93.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ashland Stock Up 0.1%

NYSE:ASH opened at $63.98 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $2.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 0.43. Ashland Inc. has a twelve month low of $46.29 and a twelve month high of $68.25. The company has a current ratio of 3.06, a quick ratio of 1.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $58.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $58.79.

Ashland (NYSE:ASH) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The basic materials company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by ($0.06). The company 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 company’s revenue for the quarter was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.99 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Ashland Inc. will post 3.58 EPS for the current year.

Ashland Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 1st were paid a $0.42 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 1st. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.6%. This is an increase from Ashland’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. Ashland’s payout ratio is currently -10.89%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Ashland from $60.00 to $50.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Ashland from $66.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 10th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating and issued a $60.00 target price on shares of Ashland in a report on Friday, May 1st. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Ashland from a “sell (d)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Ashland from $70.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.67.

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.