Analysts Set Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) PT at $104.30

Shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) have earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the twenty ratings firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $104.30.

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ALB. Evercore ISI lowered shares of Albemarle from an “outperform” rating to an “inline” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $109.00 to $105.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. KeyCorp lowered their price target on Albemarle from $127.00 to $122.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on Albemarle from $85.00 to $75.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Albemarle from $73.00 to $68.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Albemarle during the 4th quarter worth about $85,570,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Albemarle in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $39,405,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Albemarle by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,594,499 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,256,294,000 after purchasing an additional 359,014 shares in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA grew its stake in Albemarle by 36.7% in the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 1,192,527 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $102,653,000 after purchasing an additional 320,150 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC raised its position in Albemarle by 67.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 658,145 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $62,333,000 after acquiring an additional 264,756 shares in the last quarter. 92.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Albemarle Trading Down 12.0 %

Shares of ALB stock opened at $58.55 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $77.46 and its two-hundred day moving average is $90.17. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. Albemarle has a 12 month low of $57.53 and a 12 month high of $137.50. The company has a market cap of $6.89 billion, a PE ratio of -5.23 and a beta of 1.59.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The specialty chemicals company reported ($1.09) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.60) by ($0.49). Albemarle had a negative return on equity of 1.72% and a negative net margin of 21.93%. Equities analysts predict that Albemarle will post -0.04 EPS for the current year.

Albemarle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were given a $0.405 dividend. This represents a $1.62 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.77%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. Albemarle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -14.46%.

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.