Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) Shares Sold by D L Carlson Investment Group Inc.

D L Carlson Investment Group Inc. trimmed its stake in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) by 22.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 12,458 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 3,592 shares during the quarter. D L Carlson Investment Group Inc.’s holdings in Albemarle were worth $2,754,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ALB. Fairfield Bush & CO. lifted its holdings in Albemarle by 15.0% in the 1st quarter. Fairfield Bush & CO. now owns 5,565 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,231,000 after purchasing an additional 725 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. lifted its stake in shares of Albemarle by 17.5% during the first quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 4,377 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $968,000 after buying an additional 651 shares during the period. Synovus Financial Corp boosted its position in Albemarle by 186.4% during the first quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 2,898 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $635,000 after acquiring an additional 1,886 shares during the last quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. grew its stake in Albemarle by 5.0% in the 1st quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 8,785 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $1,943,000 after acquiring an additional 418 shares during the period. Finally, Blair William & Co. IL lifted its stake in shares of Albemarle by 8.0% during the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 3,859 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $853,000 after purchasing an additional 286 shares during the period. 84.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ALB has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on Albemarle from $295.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 8th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $270.00 to $260.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 4th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Albemarle in a research report on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Albemarle from $225.00 to $227.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 4th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Albemarle from $200.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, August 4th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $273.76.

Albemarle Trading Down 1.1 %

NYSE ALB opened at $184.36 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $21.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.55, a PEG ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 1.56. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $205.20 and its 200-day simple moving average is $209.83. The company has a current ratio of 1.74, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. Albemarle Co. has a 52 week low of $171.82 and a 52 week high of $334.55.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 3rd. The specialty chemicals company reported $7.33 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.27 by $3.06. The firm 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 firm’s revenue was up 60.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.45 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Albemarle Co. will post 26.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Albemarle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 15th will be paid 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 4.81%.

Albemarle Company Profile

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.