McAlister Sweet & Associates Inc. Takes Position in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB)

McAlister Sweet & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 960 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $214,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. grew its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 71.0% in the first quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 2,071 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $458,000 after purchasing an additional 860 shares during the period. Lindbrook Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Albemarle by 41.7% during the 1st quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 214 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares during the period. XTX Topco Ltd purchased a new stake in Albemarle in the first quarter valued at approximately $1,083,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Albemarle by 7.4% during the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 117,931 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $26,067,000 after buying an additional 8,120 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Trust N.A. grew its stake in shares of Albemarle by 7.6% in the first quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 6,107 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,350,000 after buying an additional 433 shares in the last quarter. 84.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on ALB shares. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Albemarle from $270.00 to $260.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 4th. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Albemarle from $200.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, August 4th. HSBC cut their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $360.00 to $300.00 in a report on Friday, June 23rd. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on shares of Albemarle from $295.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 8th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Albemarle from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $273.76.

Albemarle Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of Albemarle stock traded up $0.24 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $184.82. The stock had a trading volume of 370,090 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,929,553. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.55, a P/E/G ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 1.56. Albemarle Co. has a 1 year low of $171.82 and a 1 year high of $334.55. The company has a current ratio of 1.74, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $204.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $209.65.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The specialty chemicals company reported $7.33 EPS 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.42 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.45 earnings per share. Albemarle’s revenue for the quarter was up 60.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Albemarle Co. will post 26.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Albemarle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 2nd. Investors 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.87%. Albemarle’s payout ratio is currently 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.