Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN) Sees Large Growth in Short Interest

Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest during the month of August. As of August 15th, there was short interest totalling 326,800 shares, a growth of 11.5% from the July 31st total of 293,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 142,500 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.3 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on AIN. StockNews.com raised shares of Albany International from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Truist Financial dropped their target price on shares of Albany International from $104.00 to $101.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Bank of America decreased their price objective on Albany International from $95.00 to $90.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $95.50.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Albany International

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Albany International during the first quarter worth $679,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Albany International in the 4th quarter valued at about $33,273,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Albany International by 29.7% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 100,528 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $8,490,000 after purchasing an additional 23,018 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. boosted its position in shares of Albany International by 3.7% during the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 694,792 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $64,970,000 after buying an additional 24,720 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Albany International by 0.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,529,478 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $330,041,000 after buying an additional 11,052 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.37% of the company’s stock.

Albany International Stock Up 1.2 %

Albany International stock opened at $94.16 on Friday. Albany International has a fifty-two week low of $78.20 and a fifty-two week high of $99.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 3.99 and a quick ratio of 3.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.45, a PEG ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.26. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $88.16 and its 200 day simple moving average is $89.05.

Albany International (NYSE:AIN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The textile maker reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.02). Albany International had a net margin of 9.35% and a return on equity of 13.40%. The firm had revenue of $331.99 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $318.17 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.90 EPS. Albany International’s quarterly revenue was up 21.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Albany International will post 3.79 EPS for the current year.

Albany International Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 7th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd will be issued a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 3rd. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.10%. Albany International’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 29.21%.

Albany International Company Profile

Albany International Corp., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the machine clothing and engineered composites businesses. The company operates in two segments, Machine Clothing (MC) and Albany Engineered Composites (AEC). The MC segment designs, manufactures, and markets paper machine clothing for use in the manufacturing of papers, paperboards, tissues, towels, pulps, nonwovens, building products, tannery, and textiles, as well as fiber cement and several other industrial applications.