Aviso Financial Inc. Sells 16,968 Shares of Albemarle Corporation $ALB

Aviso Financial Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Albemarle Corporation (NYSE:ALB) by 77.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,018 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 16,968 shares during the quarter. Aviso Financial Inc.’s holdings in Albemarle were worth $314,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its position in Albemarle by 48.5% during the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 2,870,110 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $179,870,000 after purchasing an additional 937,538 shares in the last quarter. FengHe Fund Management Pte. Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Albemarle during the 2nd quarter worth $32,903,000. PGGM Investments increased its stake in shares of Albemarle by 90.4% during the second quarter. PGGM Investments now owns 1,069,924 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $67,052,000 after buying an additional 507,975 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Albemarle in the first quarter valued at about $26,836,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 28.7% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,538,706 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $110,814,000 after acquiring an additional 343,210 shares in the last quarter. 92.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ALB has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 11th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Albemarle from $105.00 to $124.00 in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Rothschild & Co Redburn began coverage on Albemarle in a research report on Friday, October 24th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $135.00 price target for the company. Argus upped their price objective on Albemarle from $120.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 17th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Albemarle from $60.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Hold rating and five have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $101.29.

Albemarle Stock Up 8.2%

Albemarle stock opened at $125.36 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $96.93 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $79.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 2.31. The company has a market cap of $14.75 billion, a PE ratio of -13.45 and a beta of 1.70. Albemarle Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $49.43 and a fifty-two week high of $127.07.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 5th. The specialty chemicals company reported ($0.19) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.92) by $0.73. The firm had revenue of $1.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.27 billion. Albemarle had a negative return on equity of 1.87% and a negative net margin of 18.61%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted ($1.55) earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Albemarle Corporation will post -0.04 EPS for the current year.

Albemarle Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 12th will be issued a $0.405 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 12th. This represents a $1.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. Albemarle’s payout ratio is presently -101.89%.

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.