Spire Wealth Management Boosts Holdings in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB)

Spire Wealth Management raised its stake in shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) by 13.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,156 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after purchasing an additional 262 shares during the period. Spire Wealth Management’s holdings in Albemarle were worth $481,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in Albemarle by 124,405.7% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 104,510,053 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $22,664,050,000 after purchasing an additional 104,426,113 shares during the last quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich increased its position in Albemarle by 93,459.7% during the second quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 8,086,363 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $1,803,987,000 after purchasing an additional 8,077,720 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in Albemarle by 21.4% during the first quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,026,254 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $668,923,000 after purchasing an additional 532,741 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Albemarle by 328.3% during the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 659,821 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $87,609,000 after purchasing an additional 505,770 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased its position in Albemarle by 45.6% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,378,866 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $299,021,000 after purchasing an additional 432,155 shares during the last quarter. 84.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Albemarle Stock Up 3.9 %

Shares of NYSE:ALB opened at $127.41 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $14.95 billion, a PE ratio of 4.52, a P/E/G ratio of 0.52 and a beta of 1.67. The company has a current ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. Albemarle Co. has a twelve month low of $112.00 and a twelve month high of $293.01. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $150.71 and a 200-day simple moving average of $188.15.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 2nd. The specialty chemicals company reported $2.74 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.70 by ($0.96). The company had revenue of $2.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.52 billion. Albemarle had a return on equity of 36.09% and a net margin of 33.63%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $7.50 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Albemarle Co. will post 21.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Albemarle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 15th will be issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 14th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.26%. Albemarle’s payout ratio is 5.67%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently issued reports on ALB. Credit Suisse Group raised their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $163.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 3rd. Evercore ISI cut their price objective 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. Bank of America cut shares of Albemarle from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $212.00 to $161.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 18th. Oppenheimer dropped their price target on shares of Albemarle from $344.00 to $308.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 3rd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Albemarle from $265.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 7th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $228.50.

Insider Activity

In other Albemarle news, EVP Kristin M. Coleman bought 1,373 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 7th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $121.86 per share, with a total value of $167,313.78. Following the acquisition, the executive vice president now directly owns 2,746 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $334,627.56. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.38% of the company’s stock.

Albemarle Company 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.