2,233 Shares in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) Purchased by Wedmont Private Capital

Wedmont Private Capital acquired a new position in shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 2,233 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $233,000.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Sage Capital Advisors llc increased its holdings in Albemarle by 1.5% during the third quarter. Sage Capital Advisors llc now owns 14,520 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $1,375,000 after buying an additional 219 shares during the last quarter. Leibman Financial Services Inc. increased its holdings in Albemarle by 69.2% during the third quarter. Leibman Financial Services Inc. now owns 25,889 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $2,452,000 after buying an additional 10,587 shares during the last quarter. Marion Wealth Management increased its holdings in Albemarle by 27.8% during the third quarter. Marion Wealth Management now owns 14,217 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $1,346,000 after buying an additional 3,094 shares during the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. increased its holdings in Albemarle by 302.9% during the third quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 4,653 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $441,000 after buying an additional 3,498 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Foster Group Inc. boosted its position in Albemarle by 7.8% during the third quarter. Foster Group Inc. now owns 3,286 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $311,000 after purchasing an additional 239 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on ALB. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Albemarle from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Albemarle from $124.00 to $109.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Albemarle to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Albemarle from $115.00 to $78.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 19th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered shares of Albemarle from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $102.00 to $85.00 in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $117.60.

Albemarle Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of Albemarle stock opened at $102.02 on Monday. Albemarle Co. has a 1 year low of $71.97 and a 1 year high of $177.52. The firm has a market cap of $11.99 billion, a PE ratio of 37.10, a PEG ratio of 13.81 and a beta of 1.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 2.67 and a quick ratio of 1.75. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $88.03 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $103.88.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.04 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.53 by ($0.49). The business had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.34 billion. Albemarle had a positive return on equity of 6.38% and a negative net margin of 6.72%. The company’s revenue was down 39.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $7.33 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Albemarle Co. will post 0.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Albemarle Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th were paid a dividend of $0.405 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. 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 1.59%. Albemarle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.