Ashland (ASH) Earnings Beat Estimates In Q1, Sales Miss

Ashland Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE:ASH) logged profit from continuing operations of $34 million or 56 cents per share in the first quarter of fiscal 2020 (ended Dec 31, 2019) against loss of $71 million or $1.14 per share in the prior-year quarter.

Barring one-time items, adjusted earnings were 13 cents, down 7.1% year over year. However, it surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 10 cents.

Sales fell 7% year over year to $533 million. The figure also missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $535.9 million. Sales were hurt by softer industrial and consumer end-market demand as well as the effect of prior-year business loss at Pharmachem.

Ashland Global Holdings Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

Segment Highlights

Specialty Ingredients: Sales in the segment fell 9% year over year to $505 million in the reported quarter, impacted by weaker industrial and consumer demand, unfavorable currency and the impact of prior-year business loss at Pharmachem.

Intermediates & Solvents: Sales in the segment increased 22% year over year to $28 million, whereas sales in the prior-year quarter were lower than normal.

Financials

The company ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $157 million, up 5.4% year over year. Long-term debt was $1,502 million at the end of the quarter, down 34% year over year.

Cash used by operating activities from continuing operations was $34 million, up from $9 million in the prior-year quarter.

Outlook

Moving ahead, Ashland expects that the steps it will take internally along with the prospect of less global volatility in the coming quarters will steadily improve its performance in fiscal 2020.

Price Performance

Shares of the company have declined 0.5% in the past year against the industry’s 11.2% growth.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

Ashland currently carries a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).

Some better-ranked stocks in the basic materials space are Daqo New Energy Corp. (NYSE:DQ) , Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD) and Commercial Metals Company (NYSE:CMC) .

Daqo New Energy has a projected earnings growth rate of 326.3% for 2020. The company’s shares have rallied 45.2% in a year. It sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Royal Gold has an estimated earnings growth rate of 83.5% for fiscal 2020. It currently flaunts a Zacks Rank #1. Its shares have returned 37.5% in a year.

Commercial Metals has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and a projected earnings growth rate of 20.2% for 2020. The company’s shares have rallied 24.3% in a year.

5 Stocks Set to Double

Each was hand-picked by a Zacks expert as the #1 favorite stock to gain +100% or more in 2020. Each comes from a different sector and has unique qualities and catalysts that could fuel exceptional growth.

Most of the stocks in this report are flying under Wall Street radar, which provides a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor.

Today, See These 5 Potential Home Runs >>