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Ashland (ASH) Competitors

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$50.04 +0.52 (+1.04%)
Closing price 03:59 PM Eastern
Extended Trading
$50.10 +0.07 (+0.14%)
As of 04:20 PM Eastern
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ASH vs. ALB, NEU, CE, BCPC, SXT, FUL, IOSP, KWR, MTX, and SCL

Should you be buying Ashland stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Ashland include Albemarle (ALB), NewMarket (NEU), Celanese (CE), Balchem (BCPC), Sensient Technologies (SXT), H.B. Fuller (FUL), Innospec (IOSP), Quaker Chemical (KWR), Minerals Technologies (MTX), and Stepan (SCL). These companies are all part of the "specialty chemicals" industry.

Ashland vs.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) and Ashland (NYSE:ASH) are both mid-cap basic materials companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, earnings, profitability, community ranking, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, media sentiment and dividends.

Albemarle presently has a consensus target price of $91.62, suggesting a potential upside of 59.16%. Ashland has a consensus target price of $68.60, suggesting a potential upside of 37.62%. Given Albemarle's higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Albemarle is more favorable than Ashland.

Company Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score
Albemarle
2 Sell rating(s)
14 Hold rating(s)
5 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.14
Ashland
0 Sell rating(s)
3 Hold rating(s)
2 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.40

Albemarle received 175 more outperform votes than Ashland when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 68.09% of users gave Ashland an outperform vote while only 61.78% of users gave Albemarle an outperform vote.

CompanyUnderperformOutperform
AlbemarleOutperform Votes
779
61.78%
Underperform Votes
482
38.22%
AshlandOutperform Votes
604
68.09%
Underperform Votes
283
31.91%

In the previous week, Ashland had 7 more articles in the media than Albemarle. MarketBeat recorded 14 mentions for Ashland and 7 mentions for Albemarle. Ashland's average media sentiment score of 0.40 beat Albemarle's score of 0.26 indicating that Ashland is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company Very Positive Positive Neutral Negative Very Negative Overall Sentiment
Albemarle
1 Very Positive mention(s)
0 Positive mention(s)
4 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
1 Very Negative mention(s)
Neutral
Ashland
8 Very Positive mention(s)
2 Positive mention(s)
2 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
2 Very Negative mention(s)
Neutral

Albemarle has a beta of 1.71, meaning that its stock price is 71% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ashland has a beta of 0.58, meaning that its stock price is 42% less volatile than the S&P 500.

92.9% of Albemarle shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.9% of Ashland shares are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of Albemarle shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Ashland shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Albemarle pays an annual dividend of $1.62 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Ashland pays an annual dividend of $1.66 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Albemarle pays out -14.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Ashland pays out -69.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Albemarle has increased its dividend for 30 consecutive years and Ashland has increased its dividend for 16 consecutive years. Ashland is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Ashland has a net margin of -1.12% compared to Albemarle's net margin of -21.93%. Ashland's return on equity of 7.41% beat Albemarle's return on equity.

Company Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets
Albemarle-21.93% -1.72% -0.84%
Ashland -1.12%7.41%3.80%

Ashland has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Albemarle. Ashland is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Albemarle, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

CompanyGross RevenuePrice/Sales RatioNet IncomeEarnings Per SharePrice/Earnings Ratio
Albemarle$5.09B1.33-$1.18B-$11.12-5.18
Ashland$1.95B1.17$169M-$2.40-20.77

Summary

Ashland beats Albemarle on 13 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.

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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time

This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding {thisCompany.Symbol} and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
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Media Sentiment Over Time

This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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ASH vs. The Competition

MetricAshlandChemicals & allied products IndustryMaterials SectorNYSE Exchange
Market Cap$2.28B$4.82B$3.08B$19.31B
Dividend Yield3.14%3.49%5.21%3.83%
P/E Ratio-75.5219.5968.0834.55
Price / Sales1.1768.2925,633,028,482,418,500.0034.91
Price / Cash6.309.7924.3417.51
Price / Book0.855.015.214.68
Net Income$169M$190.83M$156.63M$1.02B
7 Day Performance-3.54%0.41%2.45%-1.96%
1 Month Performance-3.11%9.16%5.56%7.26%
1 Year Performance-49.96%-11.39%17.12%3.95%

Ashland Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
ASH
Ashland
4.3674 of 5 stars
$50.04
+1.0%
$68.60
+37.1%
-50.2%$2.29B$1.95B-75.813,900
ALB
Albemarle
4.0073 of 5 stars
$61.56
+6.3%
$92.43
+50.1%
-55.4%$7.24B$5.09B-5.507,400Options Volume
NEU
NewMarket
3.0854 of 5 stars
$637.18
+0.4%
N/A+18.1%$6.01B$2.79B13.222,060Positive News
CE
Celanese
3.2993 of 5 stars
$54.74
+6.9%
$61.89
+13.1%
-66.3%$5.99B$10.06B-3.9313,300Positive News
Analyst Upgrade
BCPC
Balchem
3.7097 of 5 stars
$165.55
+0.6%
$180.00
+8.7%
+8.2%$5.40B$964.54M42.121,340News Coverage
Positive News
Analyst Downgrade
SXT
Sensient Technologies
2.9753 of 5 stars
$94.81
-0.9%
$93.00
-1.9%
+24.1%$4.03B$1.56B32.254,090Positive News
FUL
H.B. Fuller
4.086 of 5 stars
$57.02
+4.6%
$62.50
+9.6%
-33.3%$3.09B$3.55B24.687,000News Coverage
IOSP
Innospec
3.9336 of 5 stars
$90.70
+0.2%
N/A-34.0%$2.28B$1.85B63.872,100Positive News
KWR
Quaker Chemical
4.1914 of 5 stars
$109.91
+6.3%
$163.67
+48.9%
-46.5%$1.94B$1.81B16.124,600Positive News
MTX
Minerals Technologies
4.4779 of 5 stars
$58.26
+4.0%
$80.00
+37.3%
-29.9%$1.85B$2.08B11.254,070Positive News
SCL
Stepan
4.0206 of 5 stars
$56.04
+4.0%
N/A-39.2%$1.27B$2.22B25.362,450Positive News

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This page (NYSE:ASH) was last updated on 5/22/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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