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Ashland (ASH) Competitors

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$50.22 -0.73 (-1.43%)
Closing price 07/29/2025 03:59 PM Eastern
Extended Trading
$50.20 -0.02 (-0.05%)
As of 07/29/2025 05:14 PM Eastern
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ASH vs. ALB, CBT, FUL, NEU, CE, BCPC, SXT, KWR, IOSP, and MTX

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

Ashland vs. Its Competitors

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 institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, media sentiment, risk, earnings and valuation.

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$5.38B1.57-$1.18B-$11.12-6.44
Ashland$2.11B1.09$169M-$2.40-20.92

Ashland has a net margin of -5.74% compared to Albemarle's net margin of -22.39%. Ashland's return on equity of 7.14% beat Albemarle's return on equity.

Company Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets
Albemarle-22.39% -1.92% -0.92%
Ashland -5.74%7.14%3.59%

92.9% of Albemarle shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.0% 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 is poised for long-term growth.

Albemarle has a beta of 1.63, indicating that its stock price is 63% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ashland has a beta of 0.51, indicating that its stock price is 49% less volatile than the S&P 500.

In the previous week, Ashland had 8 more articles in the media than Albemarle. MarketBeat recorded 23 mentions for Ashland and 15 mentions for Albemarle. Albemarle's average media sentiment score of 0.82 beat Ashland's score of 0.19 indicating that Albemarle is being referred to more favorably in the media.

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

Albemarle pays an annual dividend of $1.62 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. 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.

Albemarle presently has a consensus price target of $91.00, indicating a potential upside of 27.05%. Ashland has a consensus price target of $68.40, indicating a potential upside of 36.20%. Given Ashland's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Ashland is more favorable than Albemarle.

Company Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score
Albemarle
4 Sell rating(s)
10 Hold rating(s)
5 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.05
Ashland
0 Sell rating(s)
3 Hold rating(s)
2 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.40

Summary

Ashland beats Albemarle on 12 of the 19 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 ASH 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

MetricAshlandCHEM IndustryMaterials SectorNYSE Exchange
Market Cap$2.33B$15.58B$3.28B$21.03B
Dividend Yield3.26%2.00%5.16%3.60%
P/E Ratio-20.9248.49130.1127.92
Price / Sales1.093.1130,017,513,221,202,000.0068.05
Price / Cash4.9413.1323.9023.29
Price / Book0.863.035.944.54
Net Income$169M$423.39M$148.55M$993.24M
7 Day Performance-4.72%-2.18%-1.69%-1.51%
1 Month Performance-0.16%2.84%5.17%3.16%
1 Year Performance-47.83%5.46%28.47%9.14%

Ashland Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
ASH
Ashland
4.7147 of 5 stars
$50.22
-1.4%
$68.40
+36.2%
-47.6%$2.33B$2.11B-20.923,200Trending News
Earnings Report
ALB
Albemarle
4.3851 of 5 stars
$74.82
-10.7%
$91.00
+21.6%
-21.9%$8.80B$5.38B-6.738,300Analyst Forecast
High Trading Volume
CBT
Cabot
3.7175 of 5 stars
$75.29
-1.1%
$92.67
+23.1%
-24.5%$4.04B$3.99B9.744,200Upcoming Earnings
FUL
H. B. Fuller
4.4282 of 5 stars
$58.51
-1.8%
$67.25
+14.9%
-31.4%$3.16B$3.57B31.637,500Positive News
NEU
NewMarket
3.3261 of 5 stars
$694.06
-1.7%
N/A+23.5%$6.55B$2.79B13.812,060Positive News
CE
Celanese
4.3026 of 5 stars
$57.90
-1.4%
$66.50
+14.9%
-59.1%$6.33B$10.28B-3.8012,163Positive News
BCPC
Balchem
4.2639 of 5 stars
$150.64
+1.2%
$180.00
+19.5%
-15.9%$4.91B$964.54M36.121,361Upcoming Earnings
SXT
Sensient Technologies
2.6644 of 5 stars
$112.81
-0.4%
$110.00
-2.5%
+42.3%$4.79B$1.56B35.594,014Earnings Report
Dividend Announcement
KWR
Quaker Houghton
4.36 of 5 stars
$119.26
-2.3%
$159.25
+33.5%
-34.1%$2.11B$1.84B22.544,400Upcoming Earnings
IOSP
Innospec
2.9337 of 5 stars
$83.22
-1.4%
N/A-36.6%$2.08B$1.85B77.062,450Upcoming Earnings
MTX
Minerals Technologies
3.8082 of 5 stars
$61.20
-6.5%
$84.00
+37.3%
-23.8%$1.94B$2.06B1,020.173,891Earnings Report
Analyst Forecast
High Trading Volume

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This page (NYSE:ASH) was last updated on 7/30/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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