PFG Investments LLC Has $249,000 Position in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB)

PFG Investments LLC reduced its position in shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) by 12.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,720 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 239 shares during the period. PFG Investments LLC’s holdings in Albemarle were worth $249,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of ALB. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 104,426,113 shares during the period. Barclays PLC boosted its position in shares of Albemarle by 142.3% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,043,861 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $177,499,000 after buying an additional 612,963 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. boosted its position in shares of Albemarle by 6.0% during the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 10,157,015 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $2,265,928,000 after buying an additional 575,007 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 432,155 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Albemarle during the fourth quarter worth about $75,802,000. 92.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. Loop Capital reduced their price target on Albemarle from $168.00 to $162.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered Albemarle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $155.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on Albemarle from $140.00 to $138.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Oppenheimer dropped their price objective on Albemarle from $191.00 to $188.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Albemarle from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $154.00 to $149.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 12th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $176.70.

Albemarle Trading Up 2.3 %

Shares of NYSE:ALB opened at $131.74 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $15.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.88, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.62. Albemarle Co. has a 1 year low of $106.69 and a 1 year high of $247.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 0.86. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $121.04 and its 200 day simple moving average is $135.17.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by $0.86. The business had revenue of $2.36 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.18 billion. Albemarle had a return on equity of 26.62% and a net margin of 16.36%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $8.62 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Albemarle Co. will post 3.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Albemarle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th will be issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.21%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 14th. Albemarle’s dividend payout ratio is presently 11.99%.

Albemarle Profile

Albemarle Corporation develops, manufactures, and markets engineered specialty chemicals worldwide. It operates through three segments: Energy Storage, Specialties and Ketjen. The Energy Storage segment offers lithium compounds, including lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide, and lithium chloride; technical services for the handling and use of reactive lithium products; and lithium-containing by-products recycling services.