Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) Stock Price Down 3.3%

Posted by on Jun 17th, 2022

Shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB – Get Rating) traded down 3.3% during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $215.54 and last traded at $216.04. 21,398 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 98% from the average session volume of 1,230,126 shares. The stock had previously closed at $223.33.

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group cut shares of Albemarle from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $300.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 2nd. StockNews.com raised shares of Albemarle from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, May 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $290.00 to $320.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 24th. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $307.00 to $368.00 in a research note on Friday, May 6th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $290.00 price objective on shares of Albemarle in a research note on Monday, May 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $281.21.

The company has a market capitalization of $23.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 84.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 1.52. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $225.36 and its 200-day simple moving average is $221.48.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 4th. The specialty chemicals company reported $2.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.73 by $0.65. Albemarle had a net margin of 7.76% and a return on equity of 10.35%. The company had revenue of $1.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.10 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 36.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Albemarle Co. will post 13.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 10th will be issued a $0.395 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 9th. This represents a $1.58 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.78%. Albemarle’s payout ratio is 66.39%.

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ALB. Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 181.3% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,489,347 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $329,369,000 after purchasing an additional 959,810 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 8.8% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 9,924,312 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $2,194,761,000 after purchasing an additional 803,134 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Albemarle in the 4th quarter valued at $185,328,000. FIFTHDELTA Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Albemarle in the 1st quarter valued at $115,020,000. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP grew its position in shares of Albemarle by 938.1% in the 4th quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 402,597 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $94,115,000 after buying an additional 363,816 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.03% of the company’s stock.

About Albemarle (NYSE:ALB)

Albemarle Corporation develops, manufactures, and markets engineered specialty chemicals worldwide. It operates through three segments: Lithium, Bromine, and Catalysts. The Lithium segment offers lithium compounds, including lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide, lithium chloride, and lithium specialties; and reagents, such as butyllithium and lithium aluminum hydride for use in lithium batteries for consumer electronics and electric vehicles, high performance greases, thermoplastic elastomers for car tires, rubber soles, plastic bottles, catalysts for chemical reactions, organic synthesis processes in the areas of steroid chemistry and vitamins, life sciences, pharmaceutical industry, and other markets.

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