JPMorgan Chase & Co. Increases Ashland (NYSE:ASH) Price Target to $75.00

Ashland (NYSE:ASH) had its target price upped by stock analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $65.00 to $75.00 in a research report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “overweight” rating on the basic materials company’s stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s price target indicates a potential upside of 12.70% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on ASH. UBS Group upped their price target on Ashland from $66.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 10th. Argus dropped their price objective on shares of Ashland from $70.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Ashland from $60.00 to $50.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Ashland from a “sell (d)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $60.00 target price on shares of Ashland in a report on Friday, May 1st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.78.

Ashland Stock Performance

ASH traded up $1.55 on Friday, hitting $66.55. 32,511 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 844,993. The company has a 50 day moving average of $60.28 and a 200-day moving average of $59.20. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $3.05 billion, a PE ratio of -4.30, a PEG ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 0.41. Ashland has a 12-month low of $46.29 and a 12-month high of $68.25.

Ashland (NYSE:ASH) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 28th. The basic materials company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 company had revenue of $482.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $485.61 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.99 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Ashland will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in ASH. Standard Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ashland in the 3rd quarter valued at about $107,318,000. Invenomic Capital Management LP increased its position in Ashland by 92.9% during the 3rd quarter. Invenomic Capital Management LP now owns 147,482 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $7,066,000 after purchasing an additional 71,044 shares in the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. increased its position in 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 purchasing an additional 345,919 shares in the last quarter. Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. purchased a new position in Ashland in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,167,000. Finally, Thames Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Ashland during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $10,342,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.95% of the company’s stock.

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.