Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Invests $740,000 in Ashland Inc. $ASH

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new stake in Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH) during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 13,300 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $740,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Ashland by 284.3% in 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. Standard Investments LLC increased its position in Ashland by 17.2% during the 4th quarter. Standard Investments LLC now owns 2,625,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $154,009,000 after purchasing an additional 385,000 shares during the period. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. increased its position 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 worth $111,473,000 after purchasing an additional 1,682,994 shares during the period. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ashland by 23.8% during the 4th quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,801,062 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $105,668,000 after buying an additional 345,919 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ashland by 13,240.8% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,736,173 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $101,861,000 after buying an additional 1,723,159 shares during the period. 93.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ashland Stock Performance

NYSE:ASH traded down $0.39 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $66.31. 7,003 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 850,307. Ashland Inc. has a twelve month low of $46.29 and a twelve month high of $68.25. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $3.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $59.83 and a 200 day moving average price of $59.08.

Ashland (NYSE:ASH) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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). The firm had revenue of $482.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $485.61 million. Ashland had a negative net margin of 39.03% and a positive return on equity of 8.06%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.99 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Ashland Inc. will post 3.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ashland Increases Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group upped their price objective on Ashland from $66.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Ashland from a “sell (d)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Morgan Stanley set a $58.00 price target on shares of Ashland in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Seaport Research Partners upgraded shares of Ashland from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $75.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded Ashland from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ashland currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.67.

Ashland Company 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.