Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Buys Shares of 7,100 Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new stake in shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 7,100 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,026,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Kingfisher Capital LLC boosted its position in Albemarle by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Kingfisher Capital LLC now owns 14,117 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $2,401,000 after acquiring an additional 82 shares in the last quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Albemarle by 14.1% in the 3rd quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 688 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $117,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Patron Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Albemarle by 5.8% in the 3rd quarter. Patron Partners LLC now owns 1,541 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $262,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Regatta Capital Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Albemarle by 4.3% in the 4th quarter. Regatta Capital Group LLC now owns 2,371 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $343,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Innovis Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Albemarle by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Innovis Asset Management LLC now owns 15,540 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $2,642,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

Albemarle Stock Performance

NYSE ALB opened at $115.27 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $122.95 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $128.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.64, a PEG ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 1.62. Albemarle Co. 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 quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 1.47.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.99 by $0.86. Albemarle had a return on equity of 26.62% and a net margin of 16.36%. The firm had revenue of $2.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.18 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $8.62 EPS. Albemarle’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Albemarle Co. will post 3.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Albemarle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.39%. Albemarle’s dividend payout ratio is presently 11.99%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Oppenheimer lowered their price objective on Albemarle from $191.00 to $188.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on Albemarle from $140.00 to $138.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Berenberg Bank raised Albemarle from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $130.00 to $160.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. KeyCorp lowered their price objective on Albemarle from $178.00 to $159.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut Albemarle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $155.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Three 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, Albemarle has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $175.05.

Albemarle 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.