ASH vs. CE, RPM, ALB, NEU, BCPC, FUL, SXT, IOSP, KWR, and MTX
Should you be buying Ashland stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Ashland include Celanese (CE), RPM International (RPM), Albemarle (ALB), NewMarket (NEU), Balchem (BCPC), H.B. Fuller (FUL), Sensient Technologies (SXT), Innospec (IOSP), Quaker Chemical (KWR), and Minerals Technologies (MTX). These companies are all part of the "specialty chemicals" industry.
Celanese (NYSE:CE) and Ashland (NYSE:ASH) are both basic materials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability, risk, community ranking, dividends, media sentiment, institutional ownership and valuation.
98.9% of Celanese shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.0% of Ashland shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.4% of Celanese shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of Ashland shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Celanese has higher revenue and earnings than Ashland. Celanese is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ashland, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Celanese pays an annual dividend of $2.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Ashland pays an annual dividend of $1.62 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Celanese pays out 15.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Ashland pays out 43.0% 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. Celanese is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Celanese has a beta of 1.34, suggesting that its stock price is 34% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ashland has a beta of 0.92, suggesting that its stock price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Celanese received 83 more outperform votes than Ashland when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 68.76% of users gave Ashland an outperform vote while only 63.61% of users gave Celanese an outperform vote.
Celanese currently has a consensus price target of $159.35, suggesting a potential upside of 10.53%. Ashland has a consensus price target of $106.44, suggesting a potential upside of 6.26%. Given Ashland's higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Celanese is more favorable than Ashland.
Celanese has a net margin of 18.60% compared to Celanese's net margin of 9.09%. Ashland's return on equity of 14.00% beat Celanese's return on equity.
In the previous week, Celanese had 7 more articles in the media than Ashland. MarketBeat recorded 13 mentions for Celanese and 6 mentions for Ashland. Ashland's average media sentiment score of 1.31 beat Celanese's score of 1.00 indicating that Celanese is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Summary
Celanese beats Ashland on 14 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
Get Ashland News Delivered to You Automatically
Sign up to receive the latest news and ratings for ASH and its competitors with MarketBeat's FREE daily newsletter.
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.
Related Companies and Tools
