Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. Makes New Investment in Ashland Inc. $ASH

Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. acquired a new stake in Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH) in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 37,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,058,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Ashland by 284.3% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 3,454,646 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $172,318,000 after purchasing an additional 2,555,585 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ashland by 13,240.8% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,736,173 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $101,861,000 after purchasing an additional 1,723,159 shares during the period. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Ashland by 775.6% during the 4th quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,900,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $111,473,000 after purchasing an additional 1,682,994 shares in the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its holdings in Ashland by 1,080,682.0% during the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,437,440 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $84,335,000 after purchasing an additional 1,437,307 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its stake in Ashland by 1,804.0% during the 4th quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,021,264 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $59,918,000 after buying an additional 967,626 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.95% of the company’s stock.

Ashland Trading Down 0.1%

NYSE ASH opened at $66.35 on Tuesday. Ashland Inc. has a 12 month low of $46.29 and a 12 month high of $69.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 3.06 and a quick ratio of 1.78. The company has a market capitalization of $3.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 0.41. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $63.38 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $59.87.

Ashland (NYSE:ASH) last announced 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 company had revenue of $482.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.99 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Ashland Inc. will post 3.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ashland Increases Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Ashland from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Ashland from $66.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 10th. Weiss Ratings cut Ashland from a “sell (d)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Morgan Stanley set a $58.00 price target on Ashland in a report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Ashland from $60.00 to $50.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $65.20.

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.