Ashland Inc. $ASH Shares Bought by Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc.

Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH) by 23.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,801,062 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 345,919 shares during the quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Ashland were worth $105,668,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Cerro Pacific Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in Ashland by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Cerro Pacific Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,215 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $306,000 after acquiring an additional 181 shares during the period. Hilltop National Bank boosted its position in Ashland by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Hilltop National Bank now owns 4,940 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $290,000 after acquiring an additional 203 shares during the period. Waddell & Associates LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ashland by 4.6% in the third quarter. Waddell & Associates LLC now owns 4,789 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $229,000 after buying an additional 209 shares during the period. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC lifted its holdings 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 valued at $226,000 after buying an additional 225 shares during the period. Finally, Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ashland by 2.0% in the third quarter. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 12,278 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $605,000 after buying an additional 241 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.95% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on ASH. Argus cut their price objective on Ashland from $70.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 23rd. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $73.00 price objective on shares of Ashland in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Seaport Research Partners upgraded Ashland from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $75.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective on shares of Ashland in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Ashland from $60.00 to $50.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ashland has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $62.78.

Ashland Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of NYSE ASH opened at $56.35 on Friday. Ashland Inc. has a 12 month low of $46.29 and a 12 month high of $65.64. The company has a market cap of $2.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.65, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a quick ratio of 1.78, a current ratio of 3.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $54.43 and a 200-day simple moving average of $57.08.

Ashland (NYSE:ASH) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The basic materials company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.97 by ($0.06). Ashland had a negative net margin of 39.03% and a positive return on equity of 8.06%. The company had revenue of $482.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $485.61 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.99 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Ashland Inc. will post 3.51 EPS for the current year.

Ashland Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.42 per share. This is a positive change from Ashland’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 1st. Ashland’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -10.77%.

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.