Fred Alger Management LLC Raises Position in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB)

Fred Alger Management LLC increased its holdings in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) by 39.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 501,727 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after purchasing an additional 141,409 shares during the quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC owned 0.43% of Albemarle worth $110,902,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ALB. CENTRAL TRUST Co increased its position in shares of Albemarle by 3.4% in the third quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 1,149 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $304,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd increased its position in shares of Albemarle by 51.2% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 130 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares during the period. McIlrath & Eck LLC increased its position in shares of Albemarle by 39.0% in the fourth quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 164 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC. increased its position in shares of Albemarle by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 4,377 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $949,000 after acquiring an additional 47 shares during the period. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its position in shares of Albemarle by 1.0% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 5,212 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,378,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $275.00 to $255.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their target price on shares of Albemarle from $260.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 7th. Evercore ISI cut their target price on shares of Albemarle from $295.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Credit Suisse Group lifted their target price on shares of Albemarle from $163.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Albemarle from $270.00 to $260.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Albemarle presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $273.76.

Albemarle Stock Performance

Shares of ALB traded down $1.82 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $184.50. 620,686 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,936,501. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 1.74. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $206.09 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $210.29. Albemarle Co. has a 1 year low of $171.82 and a 1 year high of $334.55. The stock has a market cap of $21.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.61, a P/E/G ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 1.56.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 3rd. The specialty chemicals company reported $7.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.27 by $3.06. Albemarle had a net margin of 40.55% and a return on equity of 45.88%. The firm had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.42 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.45 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 60.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Albemarle Co. will post 26.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Albemarle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 14th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.87%. Albemarle’s dividend payout ratio is currently 4.81%.

About Albemarle

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.