Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) Rating Increased to Sell at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) to a sell rating in a report published on Monday.

ALB has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Evercore ISI cut shares of Albemarle from an “outperform” rating to an “inline” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on Albemarle from $90.00 to $85.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on Albemarle from $133.00 to $114.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. KeyCorp lowered their target price on Albemarle from $102.00 to $95.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Finally, Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Albemarle from $85.00 to $64.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Albemarle has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $94.24.

Albemarle Trading Down 3.9 %

NYSE:ALB opened at $57.94 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. Albemarle has a 1-year low of $49.43 and a 1-year high of $137.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.17 and a beta of 1.71. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $66.01 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $83.86.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The specialty chemicals company reported ($0.18) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.62) by $0.44. The business had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.18 billion. Albemarle had a negative net margin of 21.93% and a negative return on equity of 1.72%. Albemarle’s revenue for the quarter was down 20.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.26 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Albemarle will post -0.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Albemarle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.405 per share. This represents a $1.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.80%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. Albemarle’s dividend payout ratio is currently -14.57%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Albemarle

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ALB. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Albemarle by 71.5% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 14,948 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,287,000 after acquiring an additional 6,234 shares during the period. Bristlecone Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Albemarle by 20.5% in the 4th quarter. Bristlecone Advisors LLC now owns 28,824 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $2,481,000 after purchasing an additional 4,899 shares during the last quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC grew its holdings in Albemarle by 172.1% during the fourth quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC now owns 6,405 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $554,000 after purchasing an additional 4,051 shares during the period. Leibman Financial Services Inc. increased its position in Albemarle by 50.5% during the fourth quarter. Leibman Financial Services Inc. now owns 38,964 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $3,354,000 after buying an additional 13,075 shares during the last quarter. Finally, O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Albemarle in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $218,000. 92.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.