ASH vs. BCPC, IOSP, HUN, CC, OLN, NGVT, HWKN, FMC, ALTM, and CRS
Should you be buying Ashland stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Ashland include Balchem (BCPC), Innospec (IOSP), Huntsman (HUN), Chemours (CC), Olin (OLN), Ingevity (NGVT), Hawkins (HWKN), FMC (FMC), Arcadium Lithium (ALTM), and Carpenter Technology (CRS). These companies are all part of the "basic materials" sector.
Ashland (NYSE:ASH) and Balchem (NASDAQ:BCPC) are both mid-cap basic materials companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, community ranking, earnings, valuation, risk and media sentiment.
In the previous week, Ashland had 18 more articles in the media than Balchem. MarketBeat recorded 25 mentions for Ashland and 7 mentions for Balchem. Balchem's average media sentiment score of 0.85 beat Ashland's score of 0.21 indicating that Balchem is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
94.0% of Ashland shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.9% of Balchem shares are held by institutional investors. 0.7% of Ashland shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.8% of Balchem shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Balchem has a net margin of 12.35% compared to Ashland's net margin of 9.09%. Balchem's return on equity of 11.03% beat Ashland's return on equity.
Ashland has a beta of 0.92, suggesting that its share price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Balchem has a beta of 0.72, suggesting that its share price is 28% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Ashland pays an annual dividend of $1.54 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Balchem pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.3%. Ashland pays out 40.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Balchem pays out 11.3% 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 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.
Ashland received 204 more outperform votes than Balchem when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 68.84% of users gave Ashland an outperform vote while only 66.78% of users gave Balchem an outperform vote.
Ashland currently has a consensus target price of $106.44, indicating a potential upside of 6.38%. Balchem has a consensus target price of $170.00, indicating a potential upside of 9.09%. Given Balchem's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Balchem is more favorable than Ashland.
Summary
Ashland and Balchem tied by winning 10 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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.
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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