Ashland reports third quarter 2026 results and reaffirms full-year sales & Adjusted EBITDA outlook
Rhea-AI Summary
Ashland (NYSE: ASH) reported fiscal Q3 2026 sales of $497 million, up 7% year over year, with volumes up 6% and pricing about 1% higher. Income from continuing operations was $41 million, or $0.89 per diluted share, versus a large prior-year loss, while net income reached $16 million. Adjusted income from continuing operations excluding intangibles amortization was $47 million, or $1.02 per diluted share. Adjusted EBITDA was $109 million (21.9% margin), down 4% from $113 million as higher volumes and pricing were more than offset by earlier lower production rates, inflation and normalized incentive compensation. Operating cash flow was $121 million and ongoing free cash flow $103 million. Life Sciences and Personal Care delivered double‑digit and mid‑single‑digit sales growth, respectively, while Specialty Additives and Intermediates saw EBITDA declines. Ashland reaffirmed full‑year 2026 sales guidance of $1.835‑$1.870 billion and Adjusted EBITDA of $385‑$400 million, but trimmed its adjusted EPS growth outlook to low‑to‑mid single digits, citing a higher tax rate.
Positive
- Q3 sales $497 million, up 7% year over year with 6% volume growth
- Income from continuing operations $41 million, $0.89 per diluted share versus prior-year loss
- Net income $16 million versus prior-year net loss of $742 million
- Life Sciences sales $180 million, up 11% with 33% Adjusted EBITDA margin
- Personal Care sales $155 million, up 5% with Adjusted EBITDA up to $45 million
- Operating cash flow $121 million and ongoing free cash flow $103 million in Q3
- Net leverage 2.4x, back within the company’s long-term target range
- Reaffirmed full-year sales guidance $1.835‑$1.870 billion and Adjusted EBITDA $385‑$400 million
Negative
- Adjusted EBITDA $109 million, down 4% from $113 million in prior-year quarter
- Specialty Additives Adjusted EBITDA $20 million, down from $26 million year over year
- Intermediates Adjusted EBITDA $4 million, down from $7 million year over year
- Full-year adjusted EPS growth outlook cut to low-to-mid single digits due to higher tax rate
- Company notes elevated raw material and freight costs expected to persist
- Ongoing free cash flow $103 million, slightly below $108 million in prior-year quarter
Key Figures
Previous Earnings Reports
| Date | Event | Sentiment | 24h Move | Catalyst |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 04 | Q4 earnings report | Neutral | +6.1% | Mixed results included lower sales and EBITDA alongside a tax refund and fiscal outlook |
| Jul 29 | Q3 earnings report | Negative | +5.6% | Sales decline and goodwill impairment drove a large net loss |
| Apr 30 | Q2 earnings report | Negative | -9.8% | Broad segment declines and weaker macroeconomic conditions prompted revised full-year outlook |
| Jan 28 | Q1 earnings report | Negative | -9.8% | Sales and EBITDA fell while the company implemented cost reductions and maintained guidance |
| Nov 06 | Q4 earnings report | Positive | -7.6% | Higher sales and EBITDA accompanied portfolio optimization and operational challenges |
24h Move is the share-price change in the day after each event; other market factors may also have contributed.
Tag-specific earnings events produced an average 24-hour move of -3.13%, with two aligned reactions and three divergences.
Key Terms
adjusted ebitda financial
non-gaap financial measures financial
n-methyl-2-pyrrolidone technical
net leverage financial
AI-generated analysis. How Rhea-AI works. Not financial advice.
- Sales of
$497 million , up seven percent from the prior-year quarter - Income from continuing operations of
$41 million , or$0.89 per diluted share - Adjusted Income from Continuing Operations Excluding Intangibles Amortization Expense of
$47 million , or$1.02 per diluted share - Net income of
$16 million , or$0.35 per diluted share - Sales volumes rose six percent from the prior-year quarter, with gains achieved across all business units
- Adjusted EBITDA of
$109 million , down four percent from the prior-year quarter, primarily reflecting growth in Life Sciences and Personal Care, more than offset by lower Specialty Additives and Intermediates earnings - Cash flows provided by operating activities of
$121 million ; Ongoing Free Cash Flow2 of$103 million - Reaffirming full‑year fiscal 2026 sales guidance of
$1,835 -$1,870 million and Adjusted EBITDA guidance of$385 -$400 million
WILMINGTON, Del., July 28, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ashland Inc. (NYSE: ASH) today announced financial results1 for the third quarter of fiscal year 2026, which ended June 30, 2026, and reaffirmed its full-year fiscal 2026 sales and Adjusted EBITDA outlook. Ashland, a global additives and specialty ingredients company, holds leadership positions in high-quality, consumer-focused markets including pharmaceuticals, personal care and architectural coatings.
“Ashland’s third-quarter results reflected broad-based demand and strong commercial execution across the portfolio,” said Guillermo Novo, chair and chief executive officer, Ashland. “Sales increased seven percent year-over-year, with growth achieved across all business units and regions. Our teams continued to successfully recover higher raw material costs through pricing actions, preserving margins while maintaining strong customer relationships. Life Sciences delivered double-digit sales gains, benefiting from broad demand across pharma and continued progress from our globalize and innovate strategies. Personal Care generated another quarter of strong performance, led by momentum in biofunctional actives, high-single-digit growth in skin care, and favorable contributions from hair care and microbial protection. Specialty Additives benefited from continued growth in coatings and performance specialties driven by share gains and strong commercial momentum. In Intermediates, merchant sales increased, reflecting improving NMP demand for battery-related applications.”
Novo continued, “Our third quarter results reflected continued progress on the initiatives that are strengthening our operations and positioning the company for improved profitability over time. Plant operations improved during the quarter and profitability increased sequentially, and we recognize there is still work to do and expect continued progress as we advance our operational priorities and investments to improve reliability and throughput across the network.”
“Our globalize and innovate strategies continued to exceed our targets, driven by strong customer engagement, innovation execution and momentum across our differentiated portfolio,” Novo said. “We also generated healthy cash flow in the quarter, supported by disciplined inventory management. Importantly, we ended the quarter with net leverage of 2.4x, returning to our long-term target range and further strengthening our financial flexibility. As operational performance continues to improve and production increasingly aligns with demand, we expect greater flexibility across the network and an improving profitability profile. We are also expanding the reach of our technology platforms, creating new opportunities to deliver differentiated solutions, deepen customer engagement and support long-term value creation. While the macroeconomic environment remains uncertain, we remain focused on the factors within our control, including commercial execution, operating performance, cash generation and productivity.”
Third-quarter sales were
Net income was
Average diluted shares outstanding were 46 million in the third quarter, flat versus 46 million in the prior-year quarter.
Cash flows provided by operating activities were
Reportable Segment Performance
To aid in the understanding of Ashland’s ongoing business performance, the results of Ashland reportable segments are described below on an adjusted basis. In addition, EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are reconciled to operating income in Table 4. Free Cash Flow, Ongoing Free Cash Flow and Adjusted Operating Income are reconciled in Table 6 and Adjusted Income from Continuing Operations, Adjusted Diluted Earnings Per Share and Adjusted Diluted Earnings Per Share Excluding Intangible Amortization Expense are reconciled in Table 7 of this news release. These adjusted results are considered non-GAAP financial measures. For a full description of the non-GAAP financial measures used, see the “Use of Non-GAAP Measures” section that further describes these adjustments below.
Life Sciences
Sales for the Life Sciences segment totaled
Adjusted Operating Income for the quarter was
Personal Care
Personal Care sales in the third quarter were
Adjusted Operating Income was
Specialty Additives
Specialty Additives sales were
Adjusted Operating Income was
Intermediates
Intermediates sales totaled
Adjusted Operating Income was
Unallocated & Other
Unallocated and other expense was
Financial Outlook
Ashland is reaffirming its full year fiscal 2026 sales guidance of
Despite a mixed macroeconomic backdrop, Ashland’s core Life Sciences and Personal Care end markets continue to demonstrate resilient demand, supported by stable fundamentals, continued innovation adoption from customers and strong commercial execution. Specialty Additives trends continue to improve, driven by share gains in coatings and performance specialties.
Ashland continues to benefit from growth in differentiated, higher value applications, including biofunctional actives, microbial protection, injectables and tablet coatings. Recent pricing actions are contributing to results and are expected to provide greater benefit in the fourth quarter as realization increases. Raw material and freight costs are expected to remain elevated amid geopolitical supply pressures, although Ashland expects pricing actions to offset these impacts over time.
Updated guidance
- Sales:
$1,835 t o$1,870 million (no change) - Adjusted EBITDA:
$385 million to$400 million (no change) - Adjusted Diluted Earnings Per Share Excluding Intangibles Amortization: low-to-mid single-digit growth
- Ongoing Free Cash Flow Conversion: greater than 50 percent of Adjusted EBITDA with capital expenditures of approximately $~90 million
“As we look ahead, our full year expectations reflect the underlying strength of our portfolio and the momentum we are seeing across the business,” concluded Guillermo Novo, chair and chief executive officer, Ashland. “Our globalize and innovate strategies continue to exceed expectations, demand remains resilient in our core franchise, and our teams are executing well against our innovative Technology Platforms and other priorities that support long term value creation. We expect continued sequential improvement in the fourth quarter as operational performance steadily improves. Combined with strong cash generation and disciplined execution, these actions position Ashland to carry improving earnings momentum into fiscal 2027.“
Conference Call Webcast
The company’s live webcast with securities analysts will include an executive summary and detailed remarks. The live webcast will take place at 9 a.m. ET on Wednesday, July 29, 2026. Simultaneously, the company will post a slide presentation in the Investor Relations section of its website at http://investor.ashland.com.
To access the call by phone, please go to this registration link and you will be provided with dial in details. To avoid delays, we encourage participants to dial into the conference call fifteen minutes ahead of the scheduled start time.
Following the live event, an archived version of the webcast and supporting materials will be available for 12 months at http://investor.ashland.com.
Use of Non-GAAP Measures
Ashland believes that by removing the impact of depreciation and amortization and excluding certain non-cash charges, amounts spent on interest and taxes, and certain other charges that are highly variable from year to year, EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, EBITDA Margin and Adjusted EBITDA Margin provide Ashland’s investors with performance measures that reflect the impact to operations from trends in changes in sales, margin and operating expenses, providing a perspective not immediately apparent from net income, operating income, net income margin, and operating income margin. The adjustments Ashland makes to derive the non-GAAP measures of EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, EBITDA Margin and Adjusted EBITDA Margin exclude items which may cause short-term fluctuations in net income and operating income and which Ashland does not consider to be the fundamental attributes or primary drivers of its business. EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, EBITDA Margin, and Adjusted EBITDA Margin provide disclosure on the same basis as that used by Ashland’s management to evaluate financial performance on a consolidated and reportable segment basis and provide consistency in our financial reporting, facilitate internal and external comparisons of Ashland’s historical operating performance and its business units, and provide continuity to investors for comparability purposes. EBITDA Margin and Adjusted EBITDA Margin are defined as EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA divided by sales for the corresponding period.
Key items, which are set forth on Table 7 of this release, are defined as financial effects from significant transactions that, either by their nature or amount, have caused short-term fluctuations in net income and/or operating income which Ashland does not consider to reflect Ashland’s underlying business performance and trends most accurately. Further, Ashland believes that providing supplemental information that excludes the financial effects of these items in the financial results will enhance the investor’s ability to compare financial performance between reporting periods.
Tax-specific key items, which are set forth on Table 7 of this release, are defined as financial transactions, tax law changes or other matters that fall within the definition of key items as described above. These items relate solely to tax matters and would only be recorded within the income tax caption of the Statement of Consolidated Income. As with all key items, due to their nature, Ashland does not consider the financial effects of these tax-specific key items on net income to be the most accurate reflection of Ashland’s underlying business performance and trends.
The Free Cash Flow metrics enable Ashland to provide a better indication of the ongoing cash being generated that is ultimately available for both debt and equity holders as well as other investment opportunities. Unlike cash flow provided by operating activities, Free Cash Flow and Ongoing Free Cash Flow include the impact of capital expenditures from continuing operations and other significant items impacting Free Cash Flow, providing a more complete picture of current and future cash generation. Free Cash Flow, Ongoing Free Cash Flow, and Ongoing Free Cash Flow Conversion are non-GAAP liquidity measures that Ashland believes provide useful information to management and investors about Ashland’s ability to convert Adjusted EBITDA to ongoing Free Cash Flow. These liquidity measures are used regularly by Ashland’s stakeholders and industry peers to measure the efficiency at providing cash from regular business activity. Free Cash Flow, Ongoing Free Cash Flow, and Free Cash Flow Conversion have certain limitations, including that they do not reflect adjustments for certain non-discretionary cash flows such as mandatory debt repayments. The amount of mandatory versus discretionary expenditures can vary significantly between periods.
Adjusted Diluted Earnings Per Share is a performance measure used by Ashland and is defined by Ashland as earnings (loss) from continuing operations, adjusted for identified key items and divided by the number of outstanding diluted shares of common stock. Ashland believes this measure provides investors additional insights into operational performance by providing earnings and diluted earnings per share metrics that exclude the effect of the identified key items and tax specific key items.
The Adjusted Diluted Earnings Per Share Excluding Intangibles Amortization Expense metric enables Ashland to demonstrate the impact of non-cash intangibles amortization expense on earnings per share, in addition to key items previously mentioned. Ashland’s management believes this presentation is helpful to illustrate how previous acquisitions impact applicable period results.
Ashland does not quantitatively reconcile our guidance ranges for our non-GAAP measures to their most comparable GAAP measures in the Financial Outlook section of this news release. The guidance ranges for GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures reflect Ashland’s assessment of potential sources of variability in financial results and are informed by evaluation of multiple scenarios, many of which have interactive effects across several financial statement line items. Providing guidance for individual reconciling items between our non-GAAP financial measures and the comparable GAAP measures would imply a degree of precision and certainty in those reconciling items that is not a consistent reflection of our scenario-based process to prepare our guidance ranges. To the extent that a material change affecting the individual reconciling items between the company’s forward-looking non-GAAP and comparable GAAP financial measures is anticipated, the company has provided qualitative commentary in the Financial Outlook section of this news release for your consideration. However, as the impact of such factors cannot be predicted with a reasonable degree of certainty or precision, a quantitative reconciliation is not available without unreasonable effort.
About Ashland
Ashland Inc. (NYSE: ASH) is a global additives and specialty ingredients company with a conscious and proactive mindset for environmental, social and governance (ESG). The company serves customers in a wide range of consumer and industrial markets, including architectural coatings, construction, energy, food and beverage, personal care and pharmaceutical. Approximately 2,900 passionate, tenacious solvers – from renowned scientists and research chemists to talented engineers and plant operators – thrive on developing practical, innovative and elegant solutions to complex problems for customers in more than 100 countries. Visit ashland.com and ashland.com/ESG to learn more.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Ashland has identified some of these forward-looking statements with words such as “anticipates,” “believes,” “expects,” “estimates,” “is likely,” “predicts,” “projects,” “forecasts,” “objectives,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “plans” and “intends” and the negative of these words or other comparable terminology. Ashland may from time to time make forward-looking statements in its annual reports, quarterly reports and other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), news releases and other written and oral communications. These forward-looking statements are based on Ashland’s expectations and assumptions, as of the date such statements are made, regarding Ashland’s future operating performance, financial, operating cash flow and liquidity, as well as the economy and other future events or circumstances. These statements include, but are not limited to, expectations regarding the impact of operating performance on profitability, improved profitability in the fourth quarter, the expansion of technology platforms, Ashland’s ability to maintain improved earnings momentum into fiscal 2027, and management’s perspectives and projections regarding Ashland’s performance in fiscal year 2026.
Ashland’s expectations and assumptions include, without limitation, internal forecasts and analyses of current and future market conditions and trends, management plans and strategies, operating efficiencies and economic conditions (such as prices, supply and demand, cost of raw materials, and the ability to recover raw-material cost increases through price increases), and risks and uncertainties associated with the following: Ashland’s aggressive growth goals and the extent to which such goals may be impacted by a failure to optimize our tangible and intangible assets, a failure to identify and integrate acquisition targets, any unexpected costs and liabilities associated with such acquisitions, and goodwill impairment; business disruptions stemming from natural, operational, and other catastrophic events, including disruptions to supply and logistics functions, manufacturing delays, and information technology system and network failures; climate change and related resource impacts; changes in consumer preferences and a reduction in demand for Ashland’s products; risks inherent in operating a global business, including tariffs and other trade policies, geopolitical instability and armed conflict, and challenges associated with hiring and managing a diverse workforce across countries with differing laws, regulations, and cultural practices; economic downturns and disruptions in the financial markets; Ashland’s substantial indebtedness, including the possibility that such indebtedness and related restrictive covenants may adversely affect our future cash flows, limit our ability to repay debt and obtain future financing, place Ashland at a competitive disadvantage, and make us more vulnerable to interest rate increases; our ability to develop and market new products and remain competitive in the markets in which we operate; our ability to pass increases in the costs of energy and raw materials to customers and to fulfill our contractual requirements with customers and vendors; downward pressures on prices and margins; the ability to attract and retain key employees and to provide for effective succession planning; cybersecurity risks, including disruptions to or failures in Ashland’s information technology systems and networks, malicious cyberattacks, and the inadvertent or accidental disclosure or loss of proprietary or sensitive information; Ashland’s ability to effectively protect and enforce its intellectual property rights; exposure to products liability claims; risks related to compliance with environmental, health, and safety regulations, including the potential for costly litigation, remediation, and settlement actions; exposure to pending and threatened asbestos-related litigation; changes in the legal and regulatory landscapes in which we operate; changes in taxation or adverse tax rulings; and, without limitation, risks and uncertainties affecting Ashland that are described in Ashland’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K (including Item 1A Risk Factors) filed with the SEC, which is available on Ashland’s website at http://investor.ashland.com or on the SEC’s website at http://www.sec.gov. Various risks and uncertainties may cause actual results to differ materially from those stated, projected or implied by any forward-looking statements. Ashland believes its expectations and assumptions are reasonable, but there can be no assurance that the expectations reflected herein will be achieved. Unless legally required, Ashland undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this news release whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
1Financial results are preliminary until Ashland’s Form 10-Q is filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
2The Ongoing Free Cash Flow metric excludes the impact of inflows and outflows from U.S. and Foreign Accounts Receivable Sales Program and payments related to restructuring and environmental and litigation-related matters in both the current-year and prior-year periods.
™ Trademark, Ashland or its subsidiaries, registered in various countries.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
| Investor Relations: | Media Relations: |
| Sandy Klugman | Carolmarie C. Brown |
| +1 (302) 594-7777 | +1 (302) 995-3158 |
| sandy.klugman@ashland.com | ccbrown@ashland.com |
Attachments
- Ashland_Q3_ 2026_Earnings_ Release_FNL_20260728
- Ashland_Q3_ 2026_Earnings_ Release_With_Financial_Tables_FNL_20260728
- Ashland_Earnings_ Release_Tables_Q3_FY26_FNL_20260728
