Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC Buys 580 Shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB)

Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) by 23.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 3,078 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after purchasing an additional 580 shares during the quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Albemarle were worth $445,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position 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 valued at $22,664,050,000 after acquiring an additional 104,426,113 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position 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 valued at $3,021,130,000 after acquiring an additional 75,867 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in Albemarle by 2.8% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 9,582,008 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $2,118,007,000 after acquiring an additional 260,087 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position 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 valued at $1,188,408,000 after acquiring an additional 16,968 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Albemarle by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,422,227 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $534,193,000 after acquiring an additional 57,094 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on ALB shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Albemarle from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. KeyCorp dropped their price target on shares of Albemarle from $178.00 to $159.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Bank of America raised shares of Albemarle from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $137.00 to $156.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Albemarle from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Berenberg Bank raised shares of Albemarle from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $130.00 to $160.00 in a research report on Thursday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Albemarle presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $175.05.

Albemarle Stock Up 2.1 %

Albemarle stock opened at $130.31 on Friday. Albemarle Co. has a 1-year low of $106.69 and a 1-year high of $247.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.77, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.62. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $122.76 and a 200 day simple moving average of $131.57.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by $0.86. The business had revenue of $2.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.18 billion. Albemarle had a net margin of 16.36% and a return on equity of 26.62%. Albemarle’s revenue was down 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $8.62 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Albemarle Co. will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Albemarle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.23%. Albemarle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 11.99%.

Albemarle Company Profile

Albemarle Corporation develops, manufactures, and markets engineered specialty chemicals worldwide. It operates through three segments: Energy Storage, Specialties and Ketjen. The Energy Storage segment offers lithium compounds, including lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide, and lithium chloride; technical services for the handling and use of reactive lithium products; and lithium-containing by-products recycling services.