Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) Given Consensus Rating of “Hold” by Analysts

Shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) have earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the twenty-three research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, fifteen have given a hold recommendation and seven have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $117.10.

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price objective on Albemarle from $105.00 to $80.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Robert W. Baird downgraded shares of Albemarle from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $102.00 to $85.00 in a research note on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $124.00 to $109.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. KeyCorp lowered their target price on shares of Albemarle from $151.00 to $132.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Scotiabank cut their price target on Albemarle from $135.00 to $85.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund grew its stake in shares of Albemarle by 0.8% in the second quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 122,342 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $11,686,000 after buying an additional 921 shares in the last quarter. Vienna Powszechne Towarzystwo Emerytalne S.A. Vienna Insurance Group grew its position in shares of Albemarle by 10.5% in the 2nd quarter. Vienna Powszechne Towarzystwo Emerytalne S.A. Vienna Insurance Group now owns 11,486 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,097,000 after acquiring an additional 1,092 shares during the period. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 39.2% in the 2nd quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 1,242 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $119,000 after purchasing an additional 350 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Albemarle in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,220,000. Finally, KPP Advisory Services LLC lifted its stake in Albemarle by 30.4% in the 2nd quarter. KPP Advisory Services LLC now owns 12,248 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,170,000 after purchasing an additional 2,852 shares during the last quarter. 92.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Albemarle Price Performance

Shares of ALB stock opened at $86.03 on Monday. Albemarle has a 1 year low of $71.97 and a 1 year high of $177.52. The company has a current ratio of 2.67, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $86.91 and its 200-day moving average is $106.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.28, a PEG ratio of 8.03 and a beta of 1.54.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.53 by ($0.49). The firm had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.34 billion. Albemarle had a positive return on equity of 6.38% and a negative net margin of 6.72%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 39.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $7.33 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Albemarle will post 0.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Albemarle Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be paid a $0.405 dividend. This is a positive change from Albemarle’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.62 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.88%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th. Albemarle’s payout ratio is presently 58.91%.

Albemarle Company Profile

Albemarle Corporation develops, manufactures, and markets engineered specialty chemicals worldwide. It operates through three segments: Energy Storage, Specialties and Ketjen. The Energy Storage segment offers lithium compounds, including lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide, and lithium chloride; technical services for the handling and use of reactive lithium products; and lithium-containing by-products recycling services.