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

Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd decreased its holdings in shares of Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH) by 37.4% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm 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 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ashland in the 1st quarter worth approximately $386,000. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its stake in Ashland by 13.2% during the first quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 7,190 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $400,000 after buying an additional 836 shares during the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new position in Ashland during the first quarter valued at $740,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new stake in Ashland in the first quarter worth $5,936,000. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ashland in the fourth quarter worth $12,183,000. 93.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ashland Stock Down 0.1%

ASH 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 company has a market cap of $3.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.33, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.41. 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 business’s 50-day moving average is $60.62 and its two-hundred day moving average is $59.25.

Ashland (NYSE:ASH) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 28th. The basic materials company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.97 by ($0.06). The business 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%.Ashland’s revenue for the quarter was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.99 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Ashland Inc. will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Ashland Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 1st were given a $0.42 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 1st. This is a boost from Ashland’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.5%. Ashland’s payout ratio is -10.89%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Argus reduced their price target on Ashland from $70.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating and set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Ashland in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Ashland from $60.00 to $50.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Ashland from a “sell (d)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Ashland from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.78.

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.