Diamond Hill Capital Management LLC Investment Advisor Purchases New Shares in Ashland Inc. $ASH

Diamond Hill Capital Management LLC Investment Advisor purchased a new position in Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 1,600,714 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $105,471,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ASH. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ashland by 284.3% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 3,454,646 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $172,318,000 after acquiring an additional 2,555,585 shares during the last quarter. Standard Investments LLC raised its position in Ashland by 17.2% in 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. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Ashland by 12.0% in the 1st 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 period. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in Ashland by 775.6% in 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Ashland by 23.8% in the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.95% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on ASH shares. UBS Group upped their target price on Ashland from $75.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Ashland from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Ashland from $58.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $85.00 price objective on shares of Ashland in a research report on Friday, July 31st. 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 given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $73.90.

Ashland Price Performance

Ashland stock opened at $73.69 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 3.05 and a quick ratio of 1.89. The stock has a market cap of $3.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 64.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.40. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $67.88 and a two-hundred day moving average of $60.89. Ashland Inc. has a 1 year low of $46.29 and a 1 year high of $78.25.

Ashland Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 1st. Ashland’s payout ratio is currently 147.37%.

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.