Argus Issues Positive Forecast for Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) Stock Price

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) had its price objective hoisted by Argus from $90.00 to $120.00 in a report released on Tuesday morning,MarketScreener reports.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. HSBC increased their price target on shares of Albemarle from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $74.00 price objective on shares of Albemarle and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $70.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $89.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and five have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $89.41.

Albemarle Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of NYSE ALB opened at $96.26 on Tuesday. Albemarle has a 12-month low of $49.43 and a 12-month high of $113.91. The company has a market cap of $11.33 billion, a P/E ratio of -10.33 and a beta of 1.65. The company has a current ratio of 2.31, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $82.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $69.60.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.83) by $0.94. Albemarle had a negative return on equity of 1.87% and a negative net margin of 18.61%.The firm had revenue of $1.33 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.23 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.04 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Albemarle has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Albemarle will post -0.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Albemarle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 1st. Investors of record on Friday, September 12th were issued a dividend of $0.405 per share. This represents a $1.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 12th. Albemarle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -17.38%.

Institutional Trading of Albemarle

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ALB. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Albemarle by 48.5% during the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 2,870,110 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $179,870,000 after buying an additional 937,538 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Albemarle by 22,047.4% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 713,812 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $44,613,000 after buying an additional 710,589 shares in the last quarter. FengHe Fund Management Pte. Ltd. bought a new stake in Albemarle during the second quarter worth approximately $32,903,000. PGGM Investments boosted its holdings in Albemarle by 90.4% during the second quarter. PGGM Investments now owns 1,069,924 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $67,052,000 after buying an additional 507,975 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Albemarle during the second quarter worth approximately $29,482,000. 92.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.