Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) Shares Purchased by Private Advisor Group LLC

Private Advisor Group LLC raised its stake in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) by 182.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 36,384 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after purchasing an additional 23,506 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC’s holdings in Albemarle were worth $3,475,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in Albemarle by 128.5% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 7,076,357 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,022,420,000 after acquiring an additional 3,979,885 shares in the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Albemarle by 176.6% in the 1st quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 1,588,986 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $209,333,000 after purchasing an additional 3,662,117 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Albemarle during the 4th quarter worth approximately $377,341,000. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in Albemarle by 47.4% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,185,734 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $749,235,000 after buying an additional 1,667,164 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Investors lifted its stake in Albemarle by 31.7% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 5,800,219 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $838,025,000 after buying an additional 1,396,624 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ALB. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Albemarle from $137.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 12th. KeyCorp lowered their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $151.00 to $132.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on shares of Albemarle from $190.00 to $170.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on Albemarle from $95.00 to $90.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Oppenheimer dropped their price target on Albemarle from $188.00 to $178.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Albemarle currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $117.10.

Albemarle Stock Up 13.7 %

ALB stock opened at $89.36 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 2.67, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $88.18 and its 200 day moving average price is $108.74. Albemarle Co. has a 52 week low of $71.97 and a 52 week high of $188.47. The company has a market cap of $10.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.49, a P/E/G ratio of 6.92 and a beta of 1.54.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by ($0.49). The company had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.34 billion. Albemarle had a negative net margin of 6.72% and a positive return on equity of 6.38%. Albemarle’s revenue was down 39.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $7.33 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Albemarle Co. will post 0.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Albemarle Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be issued a $0.405 dividend. This is a positive change from Albemarle’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th. This represents a $1.62 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.81%. Albemarle’s dividend payout ratio is 58.91%.

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.