Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) Shares Sold by HighTower Advisors LLC

HighTower Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) by 16.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 11,882 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 2,407 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Albemarle were worth $1,023,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Albemarle by 0.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,741,906 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $258,797,000 after acquiring an additional 14,874 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Albemarle by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,040,970 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $89,607,000 after purchasing an additional 20,380 shares in the last quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Albemarle in the fourth quarter valued at about $85,570,000. Empower Advisory Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Albemarle by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC now owns 741,484 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $63,827,000 after purchasing an additional 35,765 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Albemarle by 67.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 658,145 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $62,333,000 after buying an additional 264,756 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ALB has been the topic of several recent research reports. Evercore ISI lowered Albemarle from an “outperform” rating to an “inline” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of Albemarle from $150.00 to $140.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. KeyCorp dropped their price target on shares of Albemarle from $127.00 to $122.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $109.00 to $105.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Albemarle from $73.00 to $68.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $104.30.

Albemarle Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ALB opened at $75.73 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $8.90 billion, a PE ratio of -6.76 and a beta of 1.70. Albemarle Co. has a fifty-two week low of $67.23 and a fifty-two week high of $137.50. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $80.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of $90.94. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The specialty chemicals company reported ($1.09) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.60) by ($0.49). Albemarle had a negative net margin of 21.93% and a negative return on equity of 1.72%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Albemarle Co. will post -0.04 EPS for the current year.

Albemarle Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a $0.405 dividend. This represents a $1.62 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.14%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Albemarle’s dividend payout ratio is presently -14.46%.

Albemarle Company 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.