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S&P 500   3,971.27
DOW   32,394.25
QQQ   307.12
Walgreens Boots Alliance: Blue Chip, High-Yield Turnaround Story
"Prepare for Five Years of Famine" (Ad)
3 Small Financial Software Makers Showing Strong Chart Action
Roku And The 20% Rally That’s About To Start 
"Prepare for Five Years of Famine" (Ad)
Here’s Why Viking Therapeutics Rose Over 50% on Obesity Drug Data
Don't Be Fooled by These 3 Value Traps
"Prepare for Five Years of Famine" (Ad)
The Bottom Is In For McCormick & Company
Interactive Brokers: A Better Bet Than Schwab Post-SVB?
S&P 500   3,971.27
DOW   32,394.25
QQQ   307.12
Walgreens Boots Alliance: Blue Chip, High-Yield Turnaround Story
"Prepare for Five Years of Famine" (Ad)
3 Small Financial Software Makers Showing Strong Chart Action
Roku And The 20% Rally That’s About To Start 
"Prepare for Five Years of Famine" (Ad)
Here’s Why Viking Therapeutics Rose Over 50% on Obesity Drug Data
Don't Be Fooled by These 3 Value Traps
"Prepare for Five Years of Famine" (Ad)
The Bottom Is In For McCormick & Company
Interactive Brokers: A Better Bet Than Schwab Post-SVB?
S&P 500   3,971.27
DOW   32,394.25
QQQ   307.12
Walgreens Boots Alliance: Blue Chip, High-Yield Turnaround Story
"Prepare for Five Years of Famine" (Ad)
3 Small Financial Software Makers Showing Strong Chart Action
Roku And The 20% Rally That’s About To Start 
"Prepare for Five Years of Famine" (Ad)
Here’s Why Viking Therapeutics Rose Over 50% on Obesity Drug Data
Don't Be Fooled by These 3 Value Traps
"Prepare for Five Years of Famine" (Ad)
The Bottom Is In For McCormick & Company
Interactive Brokers: A Better Bet Than Schwab Post-SVB?
NYSE:ASH

Ashland - ASH Competitors

$100.24
+1.58 (+1.60%)
(As of 03/28/2023 12:00 AM ET)
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Compare
Today's Range
$98.41
$100.33
50-Day Range
$95.00
$110.28
52-Week Range
$91.66
$114.36
Volume
427,030 shs
Average Volume
439,897 shs
Market Capitalization
$5.44 billion
P/E Ratio
6.22
Dividend Yield
1.34%
Price Target
$128.13

ASH vs. BCPC, IOSP, HUN, UNVR, CC, LTHM, OLN, NGVT, FMC, and KGC

Should you be buying Ashland stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Ashland include Balchem (BCPC), Innospec (IOSP), Huntsman (HUN), Univar Solutions (UNVR), Chemours (CC), Livent (LTHM), Olin (OLN), Ingevity (NGVT), FMC (FMC), and Kinross Gold (KGC). These companies are all part of the "basic materials" sector.

Ashland vs.

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

92.2% of Ashland shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.3% of Balchem shares are held by institutional investors. 7.8% of Ashland shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.6% of Balchem shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Ashland has a net margin of 38.23% compared to Balchem's net margin of 11.18%. Balchem's return on equity of 11.68% beat Ashland's return on equity.

Company Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets
Ashland 38.23% 9.82% 5.04%
Balchem 11.18% 11.68% 6.96%

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

CompanyGross RevenuePrice/Sales RatioNet IncomeEarnings Per SharePrice/Earnings Ratio
Ashland$2.39 billion2.28$927 million$16.116.22
Balchem$942.36 million4.26$105.37 million$3.2538.38

Ashland received 196 more outperform votes than Balchem when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 70.66% of users gave Ashland an outperform vote while only 67.25% of users gave Balchem an outperform vote.

CompanyUnderperformOutperform
AshlandOutperform Votes
578
70.66%
Underperform Votes
240
29.34%
BalchemOutperform Votes
382
67.25%
Underperform Votes
186
32.75%

Ashland presently has a consensus price target of $128.13, suggesting a potential upside of 27.82%. Balchem has a consensus price target of $140.00, suggesting a potential upside of 12.22%. Given Ashland's higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Ashland is more favorable than Balchem.

Company Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score
Ashland
1 Sell rating(s)
1 Hold rating(s)
5 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.57
Balchem
0 Sell rating(s)
0 Hold rating(s)
1 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
3.00

Ashland pays an annual dividend of $1.34 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Balchem pays an annual dividend of $0.71 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. Ashland pays out 8.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Balchem pays out 21.8% 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. Ashland is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Ashland has a beta of 1, suggesting that its share price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.Comparatively, Balchem has a beta of 0.69, suggesting that its share price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500.

In the previous week, Balchem had 4 more articles in the media than Ashland. MarketBeat recorded 7 mentions for Balchem and 3 mentions for Ashland. Balchem's average media sentiment score of 0.46 beat Ashland's score of 0.08 indicating that Balchem is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company Very Positive Positive Neutral Negative Very Negative Overall Sentiment
Ashland
2 Very Positive mention(s)
0 Positive mention(s)
0 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Neutral
Balchem
3 Very Positive mention(s)
0 Positive mention(s)
1 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Neutral

Summary

Ashland beats Balchem on 13 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.

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

MetricAshlandChemicals & allied products IndustryMaterials SectorNYSE Exchange
Market Cap$5.44B$6.46B$2.62B$14.22B
Dividend Yield1.36%2.10%4.76%3.93%
P/E Ratio6.2211.2987.0321.35
Price / Sales2.289.5875,696.1149.17
Price / Cash9.348.2524.0016.29
Price / Book1.692.293.096.76
Net Income$927M$363.76M$389.40M$871.56M
7 Day Performance3.10%2.65%1.06%-0.33%
1 Month Performance-1.51%-4.08%0.77%-6.31%
1 Year Performance1.63%-14.73%-11.06%-14.00%

Ashland Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
BCPC
Balchem
2.8414 of 5 stars
$123.35
-3.1%
$140.00
+13.5%
-9.4%$3.97B$942.36M37.951,340Short Interest ↑
IOSP
Innospec
0 of 5 stars
$99.90
-2.8%
N/A+7.9%$2.47B$1.96B18.782,100
HUN
Huntsman
2.5501 of 5 stars
$27.40
-3.0%
$31.67
+15.6%
-29.1%$5.19B$8.02B12.697,000Short Interest ↑
UNVR
Univar Solutions
2.1158 of 5 stars
$34.60
-0.2%
$36.00
+4.0%
+6.3%$5.47B$11.48B10.689,746High Trading Volume
CC
Chemours
2.7756 of 5 stars
$29.18
-2.5%
$36.33
+24.5%
-7.3%$4.34B$6.79B8.176,600
LTHM
Livent
2.8216 of 5 stars
$20.32
-2.9%
$30.21
+48.7%
-14.3%$3.65B$813.20M15.051,350Gap Up
OLN
Olin
2.6829 of 5 stars
$51.51
-2.6%
$64.00
+24.2%
+3.1%$7.05B$9.38B5.827,780Analyst Downgrade
NGVT
Ingevity
2.5024 of 5 stars
$70.36
-2.8%
$90.67
+28.9%
+5.4%$2.62B$1.67B12.842,050
FMC
FMC
2.7438 of 5 stars
$118.06
-2.9%
$144.08
+22.0%
-12.3%$14.77B$5.80B20.296,600
KGC
Kinross Gold
2.4101 of 5 stars
$4.19
+1.0%
$6.53
+55.9%
-17.9%$5.13B$3.46B-8.919,322
This page (NYSE:ASH) was last updated on 3/29/2023 by MarketBeat.com Staff