Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) Shares Purchased by New England Research & Management Inc.

New England Research & Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) by 23.1% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 5,376 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,010 shares during the period. New England Research & Management Inc.’s holdings in Albemarle were worth $1,199,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Albemarle by 124,405.7% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 104,510,053 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $22,664,050,000 after acquiring an additional 104,426,113 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Albemarle by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,661,001 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $3,021,130,000 after acquiring an additional 75,867 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. grew its stake in Albemarle by 2.8% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 9,582,008 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $2,118,007,000 after acquiring an additional 260,087 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in Albemarle by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,364,655 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,188,408,000 after acquiring an additional 16,968 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC grew its stake in Albemarle by 21.4% during the 1st quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,026,254 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $668,923,000 after acquiring an additional 532,741 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ALB. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $255.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 8th. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of Albemarle from $275.00 to $255.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 1st. Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of Albemarle in a research note on Tuesday, June 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $260.00 price target for the company. UBS Group raised shares of Albemarle from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $196.00 to $225.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Albemarle from $270.00 to $260.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 4th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $273.76.

Albemarle Stock Down 0.3 %

Albemarle stock traded down $0.51 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $184.07. 126,556 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,928,305. The company has a market cap of $21.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.55, a P/E/G ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 1.56. Albemarle Co. has a twelve month low of $171.82 and a twelve month high of $334.55. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 1.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The company has a fifty day moving average of $204.31 and a 200-day moving average of $209.65.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The specialty chemicals company reported $7.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.27 by $3.06. The company had revenue of $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.42 billion. Albemarle had a net margin of 40.55% and a return on equity of 45.88%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 60.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.45 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Albemarle Co. will post 26.09 EPS 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 (DPR) is presently 4.81%.

Albemarle Profile

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.