Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN) Short Interest Up 11.2% in December

Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 606,100 shares, a growth of 11.2% from the December 15th total of 545,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 257,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.4 days.

Insider Transactions at Albany International

In related news, SVP Robert Alan Hansen bought 1,050 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was bought at an average price of $71.26 per share, with a total value of $74,823.00. Following the purchase, the senior vice president now owns 8,387 shares in the company, valued at approximately $597,657.62. The trade was a 14.31 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, VP Joseph M. Gaug purchased 1,000 shares of Albany International stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were bought at an average price of $71.24 per share, for a total transaction of $71,240.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 6,811 shares in the company, valued at $485,215.64. The trade was a 17.21 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last three months, insiders bought 3,450 shares of company stock worth $245,813. 0.92% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Albany International

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Inspire Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Albany International by 7.2% in the 4th quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 5,004 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $400,000 after buying an additional 334 shares during the last quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH grew its stake in shares of Albany International by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 252,233 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $20,171,000 after acquiring an additional 34,890 shares during the last quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC grew its stake in shares of Albany International by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC now owns 4,825 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $386,000 after acquiring an additional 155 shares during the last quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Albany International during the fourth quarter valued at $365,000. Finally, Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Albany International in the 4th quarter worth about $226,000. Institutional investors own 97.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AIN has been the topic of several analyst reports. Truist Financial lifted their target price on shares of Albany International from $85.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Bank of America decreased their price objective on shares of Albany International from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 15th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Albany International from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Albany International from $75.00 to $74.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded Albany International to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Albany International presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $80.75.

Albany International Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of AIN traded up $0.05 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $81.36. 106,847 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 182,907. Albany International has a 12 month low of $67.39 and a 12 month high of $98.73. The company has a market capitalization of $2.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.42 and a beta of 1.35. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $81.40 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $83.07. The company has a quick ratio of 2.94, a current ratio of 3.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36.

Albany International (NYSE:AIN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The textile maker reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.35. Albany International had a return on equity of 12.20% and a net margin of 7.92%. The business had revenue of $298.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $304.51 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.02 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Albany International will post 3.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Albany International Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.33%. This is a positive change from Albany International’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. Albany International’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 33.75%.

Albany International Company Profile

Albany International Corp., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the machine clothing and engineered composites businesses. The company operates in two segments, Machine Clothing (MC) and Albany Engineered Composites (AEC). The MC segment designs, manufactures, and markets paper machine clothing for use in the manufacturing of papers, paperboards, tissues, towels, pulps, nonwovens, building products, tannery, and textiles, as well as fiber cement and several other industrial applications.