WealthPlan Investment Management LLC Buys Shares of 1,303 Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB)

WealthPlan Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB – Get Rating) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 1,303 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $336,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Albemarle in the 3rd quarter worth $28,000. Covestor Ltd raised its stake in shares of Albemarle by 51.2% in the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 130 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. bought a new stake in shares of Albemarle in the 3rd quarter worth $37,000. Trustcore Financial Services LLC raised its stake in shares of Albemarle by 49.0% in the 3rd quarter. Trustcore Financial Services LLC now owns 149 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CoreCap Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Albemarle in the 2nd quarter worth $39,000. Institutional investors own 82.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on ALB. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Albemarle from $340.00 to $362.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 25th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Albemarle from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 28th. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Albemarle from $298.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 25th. UBS Group cut their target price on Albemarle from $297.00 to $250.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 11th. Finally, Loop Capital boosted their target price on Albemarle from $397.00 to $403.00 in a research report on Friday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Albemarle presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $308.00.

Albemarle Price Performance

Albemarle stock opened at $208.49 on Friday. Albemarle Co. has a 12 month low of $185.15 and a 12 month high of $334.55. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $254.16 and its 200-day moving average is $262.44. The company has a current ratio of 1.89, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The company has a market capitalization of $24.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.14, a PEG ratio of 0.47 and a beta of 1.57.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 16th. The specialty chemicals company reported $8.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $8.46 by $0.16. Albemarle had a return on equity of 37.63% and a net margin of 36.75%. The business had revenue of $2.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.60 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.01 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 193.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Albemarle Co. will post 30.2 EPS for the current year.

Albemarle Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, March 17th will be issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.77%. This is an increase from Albemarle’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 16th. Albemarle’s dividend payout ratio is presently 6.92%.

Insider Activity at Albemarle

In other Albemarle news, CFO Scott Tozier sold 5,700 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $251.40, for a total transaction of $1,432,980.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 69,503 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,473,054.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders sold 7,836 shares of company stock worth $1,917,699 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Albemarle Company Profile

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Albemarle Corp. engages in the development, manufacture, and marketing of chemicals for consumer electronics, petroleum refining, utilities, packaging, construction, transportation, pharmaceuticals, crop production, food-safety, and custom chemistry services. It operates through the following business segments: Lithium, Bromine, Catalysts, and All Other.