Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co Lowers Holdings in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB)

Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co lowered its position in shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) by 4.8% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 10,206 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 517 shares during the period. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co’s holdings in Albemarle were worth $975,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Amalgamated Bank lifted its position in Albemarle by 57.2% in the second quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 38,137 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $3,643,000 after purchasing an additional 13,873 shares during the period. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. lifted its holdings in Albemarle by 29.8% in the second quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 37,540 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $3,586,000 after acquiring an additional 8,618 shares during the period. Primecap Management Co. CA grew its stake in shares of Albemarle by 2.4% during the 2nd quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 3,813,054 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $364,223,000 after purchasing an additional 87,970 shares during the period. Excalibur Management Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Albemarle in the second quarter valued at about $248,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Albemarle by 2.3% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,311,331 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $125,264,000 after buying an additional 29,721 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

Albemarle Trading Down 3.7 %

NYSE:ALB opened at $86.05 on Friday. Albemarle Co. has a 52 week low of $71.97 and a 52 week high of $177.52. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The company has a market cap of $10.11 billion, a PE ratio of 31.29, a P/E/G ratio of 8.03 and a beta of 1.54. The business’s 50 day moving average is $87.14 and its two-hundred day moving average is $107.07.

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). Albemarle had a positive return on equity of 6.38% and a negative net margin of 6.72%. The business had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.34 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $7.33 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 39.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Albemarle Co. will post 0.69 EPS for the current year.

Albemarle Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.405 per share. This is an increase from Albemarle’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. This represents a $1.62 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.88%. Albemarle’s payout ratio is 58.91%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ALB has been the subject of several research reports. Bank of America reduced their price objective on Albemarle from $135.00 to $126.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 2nd. HSBC lowered shares of Albemarle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $95.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Scotiabank cut their price target on Albemarle from $135.00 to $85.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their target price on shares of Albemarle from $105.00 to $80.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Albemarle from $124.00 to $109.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $117.10.

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.