Blue Trust Inc. Acquires 397 Shares of Ashland Inc. $ASH

Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH) by 44.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,291 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 397 shares during the quarter. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in Ashland were worth $65,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ASH. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Ashland by 226.4% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 899,061 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $53,009,000 after purchasing an additional 623,601 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its position in shares of Ashland by 33.1% during the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 2,291,157 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $132,383,000 after acquiring an additional 569,740 shares during the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. boosted its position in shares of Ashland by 48.7% during the 1st quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,228,525 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $72,839,000 after acquiring an additional 402,286 shares during the last quarter. Cooperman Leon G boosted its position in shares of Ashland by 16.6% during the 1st quarter. Cooperman Leon G now owns 1,694,151 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $100,446,000 after acquiring an additional 240,686 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Edgestream Partners L.P. boosted its position in shares of Ashland by 5,452.8% during the 1st quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 175,134 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $10,384,000 after acquiring an additional 171,980 shares during the last quarter. 93.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Ashland from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 2nd. UBS Group lowered their target price on Ashland from $73.00 to $64.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Ashland from $53.00 to $52.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Mizuho lowered their target price on Ashland from $58.00 to $54.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Ashland from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $60.43.

Ashland Stock Performance

ASH stock opened at $48.94 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.33, a current ratio of 2.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $51.82 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $51.34. Ashland Inc. has a twelve month low of $45.21 and a twelve month high of $88.89. The firm has a market cap of $2.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.61, a PEG ratio of 11.12 and a beta of 0.49.

Ashland (NYSE:ASH) last released its earnings results on Thursday, June 9th. The basic materials company reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter. Ashland had a positive return on equity of 6.82% and a negative net margin of 46.01%.The business had revenue of $509.00 million for the quarter. Ashland has set its FY 2022 guidance at EPS. Analysts predict that Ashland Inc. will post 4.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Ashland Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 1st were paid a dividend of $0.415 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 29th. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.4%. Ashland’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -8.86%.

About Ashland

Ashland Inc provides additives and specialty ingredients in the North and Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and internationally. It operates through Life Sciences, Personal Care, Specialty Additives, and Intermediates segments. The Life Sciences segment offers pharmaceutical solutions, including controlled release polymers, disintegrants, tablet coatings, thickeners, solubilizers, and tablet binders; nutrition solutions, such as thickeners, stabilizers, emulsifiers, and additives; and nutraceutical solutions comprising products for weight management, joint comfort, stomach and intestinal health, sports nutrition, and general wellness, as well as custom formulation, toll processing, and particle engineering solutions.