Baird R W Downgrades Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) to Strong Sell

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) was downgraded by equities researchers at Baird R W from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report issued on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on ALB. KeyCorp dropped their price target on shares of Albemarle from $95.00 to $87.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 14th. Mizuho set a $76.00 price target on shares of Albemarle in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Albemarle from $85.00 to $64.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. UBS Group set a $57.00 price target on shares of Albemarle and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Finally, Scotiabank decreased their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $75.00 to $65.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Albemarle currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $91.00.

Albemarle Trading Down 3.8%

Shares of NYSE ALB opened at $68.89 on Tuesday. Albemarle has a 1-year low of $49.43 and a 1-year high of $113.91. The company has a market cap of $8.11 billion, a PE ratio of -6.20 and a beta of 1.63. The company has a current ratio of 2.11, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The company has a 50-day moving average of $65.61 and a two-hundred day moving average of $69.57.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.83) by $0.94. The business had revenue of $1.33 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.23 billion. Albemarle had a negative net margin of 22.39% and a negative return on equity of 1.92%. Albemarle’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.04 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Albemarle will post -0.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Albemarle

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,672,272 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,056,697,000 after acquiring an additional 77,773 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Albemarle by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,795,891 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $240,044,000 after purchasing an additional 53,985 shares during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC grew its stake in Albemarle by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 1,990,762 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $171,365,000 after purchasing an additional 25,207 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Albemarle by 28.7% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,538,706 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $110,814,000 after purchasing an additional 343,210 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Earnest Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Albemarle by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 1,432,153 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $123,280,000 after purchasing an additional 8,243 shares in the last quarter. 92.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.