Sage Capital Advisors llc Raises Stake in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB)

Sage Capital Advisors llc grew its holdings in shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 14,518 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after acquiring an additional 114 shares during the quarter. Albemarle accounts for approximately 1.1% of Sage Capital Advisors llc’s holdings, making the stock its 29th biggest holding. Sage Capital Advisors llc’s holdings in Albemarle were worth $3,239,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. CENTRAL TRUST Co boosted its position in Albemarle by 3.4% during the third quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 1,149 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $304,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd boosted its holdings in Albemarle by 51.2% during the 1st 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 grew its position in Albemarle by 39.0% during the 4th quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 164 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. increased its stake in Albemarle by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 4,377 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $949,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the period. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its position in 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 purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. 84.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on ALB. Credit Suisse Group raised their target price on shares of Albemarle from $163.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 3rd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Albemarle from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 13th. Piper Sandler cut their target price on Albemarle from $275.00 to $255.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 1st. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on Albemarle from $295.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 8th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price target on Albemarle from $200.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, August 4th. Three investment 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, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $273.76.

Albemarle Stock Performance

NYSE ALB traded down $2.94 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $178.68. 347,975 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,924,796. Albemarle Co. has a 52 week low of $171.82 and a 52 week high of $334.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.46, a P/E/G ratio of 0.60 and a beta of 1.56. 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 business’s fifty day moving average price is $201.22 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $207.86.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The specialty chemicals company reported $7.33 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.27 by $3.06. Albemarle had a return on equity of 45.88% and a net margin of 40.55%. The company had revenue of $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.42 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.45 EPS. Albemarle’s revenue for the quarter was up 60.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Albemarle Co. will post 26.09 EPS for the current year.

Albemarle Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, September 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 14th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.90%. Albemarle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.