Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. Takes Position in Ashland Inc. $ASH

Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH) during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 9,100 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $600,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ASH. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Ashland in the second quarter valued at $376,376,000. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 2,555,585 shares in the last quarter. Standard Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ashland by 17.2% during the fourth 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 last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Ashland by 12.0% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,496,021 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $138,793,000 after purchasing an additional 267,741 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Ashland by 775.6% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. 93.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ASH has been the subject of a number of research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $85.00 price objective on shares of Ashland in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Ashland from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Ashland from $58.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 6th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Ashland from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Finally, Wolfe Research reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Ashland in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ashland has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $73.90.

Ashland Stock Up 0.2%

ASH stock opened at $72.97 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $3.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 64.01, a P/E/G ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 0.40. Ashland Inc. has a 52 week low of $46.29 and a 52 week high of $78.25. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $68.88 and its 200 day moving average price is $61.29. The company has a current ratio of 3.05, a quick ratio of 1.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73.

Ashland Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.42 per share. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 1st. Ashland’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 147.37%.

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.