Sheets Smith Wealth Management Sells 4,382 Shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB)

Sheets Smith Wealth Management cut its holdings in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) by 95.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 221 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 4,382 shares during the period. Sheets Smith Wealth Management’s holdings in Albemarle were worth $1,017,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Albemarle by 124,405.7% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 104,510,053 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $22,664,050,000 after purchasing an additional 104,426,113 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Albemarle by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,661,001 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $3,021,130,000 after purchasing an additional 75,867 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. lifted its stake in Albemarle by 2.8% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 9,582,008 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $2,118,007,000 after purchasing an additional 260,087 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Albemarle by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,364,655 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $1,188,408,000 after purchasing an additional 16,968 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its stake in Albemarle by 21.4% in the 1st quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,026,254 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $668,923,000 after purchasing an additional 532,741 shares in the last quarter. 84.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Albemarle from $255.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 8th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Albemarle in a research report on Thursday, August 17th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $225.00 to $227.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 4th. Credit Suisse Group raised their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $163.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $270.00 to $260.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $273.76.

Albemarle Price Performance

Shares of Albemarle stock opened at $184.43 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $21.64 billion, a PE ratio of 5.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 1.56. Albemarle Co. has a 12-month low of $171.82 and a 12-month high of $334.55. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 1.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $206.95 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $211.02.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The specialty chemicals company reported $7.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.27 by $3.06. The business had revenue of $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.42 billion. Albemarle had a net margin of 40.55% and a return on equity of 45.88%. The company’s revenue was up 60.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.45 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Albemarle Co. will post 26.09 EPS for the current year.

Albemarle Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 14th. 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.