Albemarle (ALB) Set to Announce Quarterly Earnings on Wednesday

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) is scheduled to be issuing its quarterly earnings data after the market closes on Wednesday, May 1st. Analysts expect the company to announce earnings of $0.53 per share for the quarter. Parties that wish to register for the company’s conference call can do so using this link.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by $0.86. Albemarle had a net margin of 16.36% and a return on equity of 26.62%. The firm had revenue of $2.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.18 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $8.62 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect Albemarle to post $3 EPS for the current fiscal year and $7 EPS for the next fiscal year.

Albemarle Trading Up 1.7 %

ALB opened at $114.17 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.56, a PEG ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 1.62. Albemarle has a fifty-two week low of $106.69 and a fifty-two week high of $247.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 0.86. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $122.93 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $128.45.

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 $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.40%. Albemarle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 11.99%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on ALB shares. Oppenheimer dropped their price target on shares of Albemarle from $191.00 to $188.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Albemarle from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $137.00 to $156.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Vertical Research downgraded shares of Albemarle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $145.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Friday, March 8th. TD Cowen downgraded shares of Albemarle from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $220.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Albemarle from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $175.05.

About Albemarle

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.