Sand Hill Global Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB – Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 19,798 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,376,000.
A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. CENTRAL TRUST Co raised its stake in Albemarle by 3.4% in the third quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 1,149 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $304,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 51.2% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 130 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the period. McIlrath & Eck LLC increased its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 39.0% in the fourth quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 164 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC. increased its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 4,377 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $949,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the period. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 1.0% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 5,212 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,378,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. 84.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Analyst Ratings Changes
ALB has been the topic of a number of research reports. Citigroup initiated coverage on Albemarle in a report on Tuesday, June 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $260.00 price objective on the stock. UBS Group raised Albemarle from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $196.00 to $225.00 in a report on Thursday, May 18th. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on Albemarle from $275.00 to $255.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 1st. StockNews.com began coverage on Albemarle in a report on Thursday, August 17th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on Albemarle from $270.00 to $260.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Albemarle currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $273.76.
Albemarle Stock Performance
NYSE ALB opened at $184.54 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $21.66 billion, a PE ratio of 5.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 1.56. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $206.95 and its 200-day simple moving average is $211.23. Albemarle Co. has a 1-year low of $171.82 and a 1-year high of $334.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 1.74 and a quick ratio of 0.88.
Albemarle (NYSE:ALB – Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The specialty chemicals company reported $7.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.27 by $3.06. Albemarle had a return on equity of 45.88% and a net margin of 40.55%. The business had revenue of $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.42 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.45 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 60.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Albemarle Co. will post 26.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Albemarle Dividend Announcement
The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, September 15th will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 14th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.87%. Albemarle’s payout ratio is 4.81%.
About Albemarle
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.
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