Ashland Inc. (ASH) To Go Ex-Dividend on June 1st

Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, May 5th. Investors of record on Monday, June 1st will be paid a dividend of 0.42 per share by the basic materials company on Monday, June 15th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 1st. This is a 1.2% increase from Ashland’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42.

Ashland has raised its dividend payment by an average of 0.1%per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 16 years. Ashland has a payout ratio of 35.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Ashland to earn $4.32 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.68 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 38.9%.

Ashland Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ASH opened at $57.97 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 3.06, a quick ratio of 1.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. Ashland has a 1 year low of $46.29 and a 1 year high of $65.64. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $55.22 and a 200 day simple moving average of $57.36. The firm has a market cap of $2.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.40.

Ashland (NYSE:ASH) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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). Ashland had a positive return on equity of 8.06% and a negative net margin of 39.03%.The firm had revenue of $482.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $485.61 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.99 earnings per share. Ashland’s revenue was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Ashland will post 3.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ashland

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ASH. Royal Bank of Canada increased its stake in shares of Ashland by 18.7% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 46,306 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,747,000 after purchasing an additional 7,309 shares during the period. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC increased its stake in shares of Ashland by 6.3% in the first quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 3,815 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $226,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Ashland by 49.4% in the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 284,454 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $16,865,000 after purchasing an additional 94,067 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ashland by 1.6% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 387,132 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $22,953,000 after purchasing an additional 6,245 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its stake in shares of Ashland by 10.1% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 152,830 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $9,061,000 after purchasing an additional 13,989 shares during the period. 93.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Ashland

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.