Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Sells 593 Shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB)

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS lowered its holdings in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) by 2.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 24,993 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 593 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s holdings in Albemarle were worth $2,151,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Albemarle by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,741,906 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $258,797,000 after buying an additional 14,874 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 2.0% during the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new position in Albemarle during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $85,570,000. Empower Advisory Group LLC grew its position in Albemarle by 5.1% in the 4th 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 during the period. Finally, FMR LLC raised its stake in Albemarle by 67.3% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 658,145 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $62,333,000 after buying an additional 264,756 shares during the last quarter. 92.87% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on ALB shares. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on Albemarle from $133.00 to $114.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Albemarle from $73.00 to $68.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $85.00 to $75.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Albemarle from $99.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, 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. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Albemarle has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $104.30.

Albemarle Stock Up 0.2 %

ALB opened at $77.70 on Tuesday. Albemarle Co. has a 52 week low of $67.23 and a 52 week high of $137.50. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $81.43 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $91.04. The company has a market capitalization of $9.13 billion, a PE ratio of -6.94 and a beta of 1.70.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The specialty chemicals company reported ($1.09) earnings per share 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%. Analysts forecast that Albemarle Co. will post -0.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Albemarle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.405 per share. This represents a $1.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.09%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Albemarle’s payout ratio is -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.