Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) Stake Lessened by Royal London Asset Management Ltd.

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. lowered its holdings in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) by 52.0% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 46,974 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 50,799 shares during the period. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in Albemarle were worth $4,487,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 4.8% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 2,407 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $348,000 after acquiring an additional 111 shares in the last quarter. Principal Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Albemarle during the fourth quarter worth $142,000. Ieq Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 44.1% during the fourth quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 2,531 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $366,000 after acquiring an additional 774 shares in the last quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 51.8% during the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,248 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $180,000 after acquiring an additional 426 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 25.3% during the fourth quarter. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC now owns 2,149 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $310,000 after acquiring an additional 434 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. Berenberg Bank lowered Albemarle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $160.00 to $83.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Albemarle to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Albemarle from $115.00 to $78.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 19th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered Albemarle from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their target price for the company from $145.00 to $100.00 in a report on Thursday, July 11th. Finally, Bank of America cut their target price on Albemarle from $135.00 to $126.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 2nd. 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $117.10.

Albemarle Trading Down 0.7 %

ALB stock opened at $87.44 on Friday. Albemarle Co. has a 1-year low of $71.97 and a 1-year high of $188.47. The firm has a market cap of $10.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.80, a P/E/G ratio of 8.03 and a beta of 1.54. The business’s 50 day moving average is $87.73 and its 200-day moving average is $108.22. The company has a current ratio of 2.67, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38.

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

Albemarle Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be issued a $0.405 dividend. This is an increase from Albemarle’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.62 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th. Albemarle’s payout ratio is presently 58.91%.

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.