Ashland (ASH) Marked As A Barbarian At The Gate
Trade-Ideas LLC identified
(
) as a "barbarian at the gate" (strong stocks crossing above resistance with today's range greater than 200%) candidate. In addition to specific proprietary factors, Trade-Ideas identified Ashland as such a stock due to the following factors:
- ASH has an average dollar-volume (as measured by average daily share volume multiplied by share price) of $51.8 million.
- ASH has traded 474,643 shares today.
- ASH traded in a range 342.1% of the normal price range with a price range of $7.16.
- ASH traded above its daily resistance level (quality: 1 day, meaning that the stock is crossing a resistance level set by the last 1 calendar day. The resistance price is defined by the Price - $0.01 at the time of the signal).
Stocks matching the 'Barbarian at the Gate' criteria are worthwhile stocks to watch for a variety of factors including historical back testing and volatility. Trade-Ideas targets these opportunities because the stock is exhibiting an unusual behavior while displaying positive price action. In this case, the stock crossed an important inflection point; namely, 'resistance' while at the same time the range of the stock's movement in price is more than twice its normal size. This large range foreshadows a possible continuation as the stock moves higher.
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More details on ASH:
Ashland Inc. operates as a specialty chemicals company worldwide. The company's Specialty Ingredients segment provides products, technologies, and resources for solving formulation and product-performance challenges. The stock currently has a dividend yield of 1.4%. ASH has a PE ratio of 34. Currently there are 7 analysts that rate Ashland a buy, no analysts rate it a sell, and 2 rate it a hold.
The average volume for Ashland has been 684,800 shares per day over the past 30 days. Ashland has a market cap of $7.5 billion and is part of the basic materials sector and chemicals industry. The stock has a beta of 0.90 and a short float of 2.6% with 3.81 days to cover. Shares are down 9.2% year-to-date as of the close of trading on Tuesday.
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Analysis:
rates Ashland as a
. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its increase in net income, expanding profit margins and largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including disappointing return on equity and weak operating cash flow.
Highlights from the ratings report include:
- The company, on the basis of net income growth from the same quarter one year ago, has significantly outperformed against the S&P 500 and exceeded that of the Chemicals industry average. The net income increased by 7.1% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, going from $99.00 million to $106.00 million.
- 37.55% is the gross profit margin for ASHLAND INC which we consider to be strong. It has increased from the same quarter the previous year. Regardless of the strong results of the gross profit margin, the net profit margin of 7.75% trails the industry average.
- Even though the current debt-to-equity ratio is 1.17, it is still below the industry average, suggesting that this level of debt is acceptable within the Chemicals industry. Despite the fact that ASH's debt-to-equity ratio is mixed in its results, the company's quick ratio of 1.55 is high and demonstrates strong liquidity.
- The company's current return on equity has slightly decreased from the same quarter one year prior. This implies a minor weakness in the organization. In comparison to the other companies in the Chemicals industry and the overall market, ASHLAND INC's return on equity is significantly below that of the industry average and is below that of the S&P 500.
- Net operating cash flow has significantly decreased to -$271.00 million or 213.86% when compared to the same quarter last year. In addition, when comparing to the industry average, the firm's growth rate is much lower.
- You can view the full Ashland Ratings Report.
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