Is Ashland Global Holdings Inc. (ASH) A Good Stock To Buy?

In this article we will check out the progression of hedge fund sentiment towards Ashland Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE:ASH) and determine whether it is a good investment right now. We at Insider Monkey like to examine what billionaires and hedge funds think of a company before spending days of research on it. Given their 2 and 20 payment structure, hedge funds have more incentives and resources than the average investor. The funds have access to expert networks and get tips from industry insiders. They also employ numerous Ivy League graduates and MBAs. Like everyone else, hedge funds perform miserably at times, but their consensus picks have historically outperformed the market after risk adjustments.

Is ASH a good stock to buy? Ashland Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE:ASH) has experienced a decrease in hedge fund sentiment lately. Ashland Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE:ASH) was in 36 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the first quarter of 2021. The all time high for this statistic is 46. There were 38 hedge funds in our database with ASH positions at the end of the fourth quarter. Our calculations also showed that ASH isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings).

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Leon Cooperman of Omega Advisors

At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, lithium mining is one of the fastest growing industries right now, so we are checking out stock pitches like this emerging lithium stock. We go through lists like the 10 best battery stocks to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our homepage. With all of this in mind we’re going to view the new hedge fund action encompassing Ashland Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE:ASH).

Do Hedge Funds Think ASH Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?

At the end of March, a total of 36 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of -5% from the fourth quarter of 2020. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards ASH over the last 23 quarters. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes considerably (or already accumulated large positions).

The largest stake in Ashland Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE:ASH) was held by Eminence Capital, which reported holding $358.2 million worth of stock at the end of December. It was followed by Diamond Hill Capital with a $130.9 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included Millennium Management, Empyrean Capital Partners, and Omega Advisors. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Cruiser Capital Advisors allocated the biggest weight to Ashland Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE:ASH), around 47.27% of its 13F portfolio. Albar Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 12.74 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to ASH.

Since Ashland Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE:ASH) has witnessed a decline in interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, logic holds that there were a few fund managers who sold off their positions entirely in the first quarter. Interestingly, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital cut the largest stake of all the hedgies watched by Insider Monkey, comprising about $15.2 million in stock, and Alexander Mitchell’s Scopus Asset Management was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $7.6 million worth. These moves are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 2 funds in the first quarter.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Ashland Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE:ASH). We will take a look at Owl Rock Capital Corporation (NYSE:ORCC), Janus Henderson Group plc (NYSE:JHG), Essent Group Ltd (NYSE:ESNT), 1Life Healthcare, Inc. (NASDAQ:ONEM), Stag Industrial Inc (NYSE:STAG), Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ), and Schrodinger, Inc. (NASDAQ:SDGR). This group of stocks’ market valuations are closest to ASH’s market valuation.

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As you can see these stocks had an average of 21.7 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $498 million. That figure was $1199 million in ASH’s case. 1Life Healthcare, Inc. (NASDAQ:ONEM) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ) is the least popular one with only 16 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Ashland Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE:ASH) is more popular among hedge funds. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for ASH is 76.5. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. Our calculations showed that top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 19.3% in 2021 through June 25th and still beat the market by 4.8 percentage points. Unfortunately ASH wasn’t nearly as popular as these 5 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on ASH were disappointed as the stock returned 0.2% since the end of the first quarter (through 6/25) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds as most of these stocks already outperformed the market since 2019.

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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.