Arizona State Retirement System Grows Stock Holdings in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB)

Arizona State Retirement System lifted its position in shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) by 0.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 32,252 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after purchasing an additional 240 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Albemarle were worth $4,660,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of ALB. Eagle Strategies LLC raised its stake in Albemarle by 149.3% during the 3rd quarter. Eagle Strategies LLC now owns 14,058 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $2,391,000 after acquiring an additional 8,420 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG raised its stake in Albemarle by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 283,876 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $48,270,000 after acquiring an additional 14,593 shares in the last quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in Albemarle by 80.3% during the 3rd quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC now owns 19,757 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $3,359,000 after acquiring an additional 8,799 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in Albemarle by 8.9% during the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 412,821 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $70,179,000 after acquiring an additional 33,662 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pinnacle Associates Ltd. raised its stake in Albemarle by 235.9% during the 4th quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. now owns 12,107 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $1,749,000 after acquiring an additional 8,503 shares in the last quarter. 92.87% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. KeyCorp cut their price target on shares of Albemarle from $178.00 to $159.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $137.00 to $125.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Oppenheimer dropped their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $191.00 to $188.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Bank of America upgraded shares of 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. Finally, TD Cowen lowered shares of Albemarle from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $220.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $176.70.

Albemarle Stock Up 6.7 %

ALB stock opened at $131.70 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $15.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.62. Albemarle Co. has a 52 week low of $106.69 and a 52 week high of $247.44. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $122.05 and its 200 day moving average price is $131.88. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37.

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

Albemarle Dividend Announcement

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

Albemarle Company 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.