Park Avenue Securities LLC Buys 1,414 Shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB)

Park Avenue Securities LLC lifted its stake in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) by 21.6% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 7,966 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after buying an additional 1,414 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC’s holdings in Albemarle were worth $574,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ALB. Apollon Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Albemarle by 25.8% in the fourth quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,233 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $278,000 after buying an additional 663 shares during the period. Opes Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Albemarle by 11.3% in the fourth quarter. Opes Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,461 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $642,000 after buying an additional 760 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D lifted its stake in shares of Albemarle by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 43,708 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $3,762,000 after buying an additional 619 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its stake in shares of Albemarle by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 19,124 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,646,000 after buying an additional 994 shares during the period. Finally, Empower Advisory Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Albemarle by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC now owns 741,484 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $63,827,000 after buying an additional 35,765 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Scotiabank dropped their price target on shares of Albemarle from $75.00 to $65.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Albemarle from $68.00 to $58.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Albemarle from $86.00 to $64.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 7th. KeyCorp dropped their price target on shares of Albemarle from $102.00 to $95.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on shares of Albemarle from $77.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $91.62.

Albemarle Price Performance

Shares of ALB stock opened at $60.65 on Friday. Albemarle Co. has a 52-week low of $49.43 and a 52-week high of $113.91. The stock has a market cap of $7.14 billion, a PE ratio of -5.41 and a beta of 1.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.95. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $58.06 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $75.68.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The specialty chemicals company reported ($0.18) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.62) by $0.44. Albemarle had a negative net margin of 21.93% and a negative return on equity of 1.72%. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.18 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.26 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 20.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Albemarle Co. will post -0.04 EPS for the current year.

Albemarle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be paid a $0.405 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.67%. Albemarle’s payout ratio is presently -14.57%.

About Albemarle

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.