Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) Price Target Raised to $293.00

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB – Get Rating) had its price target boosted by equities researchers at Mizuho from $243.00 to $293.00 in a report released on Friday, The Fly reports. Mizuho’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 23.89% from the company’s current price.

ALB has been the subject of several other reports. Zacks Investment Research downgraded shares of Albemarle from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $200.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, February 21st. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Albemarle in a research note on Thursday, March 31st. They set a “sell” rating for the company. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $163.00 to $198.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 5th. Bank of America lowered their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $230.00 to $216.00 in a research note on Friday, February 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $300.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Friday, February 18th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $244.86.

Albemarle stock opened at $236.50 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The company has a market capitalization of $27.70 billion, a PE ratio of 99.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.55. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $202.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $226.36. Albemarle has a twelve month low of $150.00 and a twelve month high of $291.48.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 4th. The specialty chemicals company reported $2.38 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.63 by $0.75. The business had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.03 billion. Albemarle had a net margin of 3.72% and a return on equity of 7.79%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 36.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.10 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Albemarle will post 6.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

In other news, CEO J Kent Masters purchased 5,241 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 18th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $190.80 per share, for a total transaction of $999,982.80. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Netha N. Johnson purchased 1,060 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 18th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $187.81 per share, for a total transaction of $199,078.60. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.25% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 9,121,178 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $2,132,257,000 after buying an additional 57,229 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,145,611 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $500,283,000 after buying an additional 71,109 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 1,241,023 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $290,114,000 after buying an additional 21,735 shares during the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management SA grew its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 6.0% during the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management SA now owns 1,192,093 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $278,676,000 after buying an additional 67,297 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 12.3% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,091,953 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $255,266,000 after buying an additional 119,892 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.03% of the company’s stock.

About Albemarle (Get Rating)

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.

See Also