Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) Shares Bought by TD Waterhouse Canada Inc.

TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) by 1,813.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 45,022 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after buying an additional 42,669 shares during the quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc.’s holdings in Albemarle were worth $3,874,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Albemarle in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $85,570,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Albemarle during the fourth quarter worth $39,405,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Albemarle by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,594,499 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,256,294,000 after buying an additional 359,014 shares in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its stake in Albemarle by 36.7% in the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 1,192,527 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $102,653,000 after buying an additional 320,150 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in Albemarle during the 4th quarter worth about $11,694,000. 92.87% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Albemarle Stock Up 3.3 %

ALB stock opened at $54.76 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.44 billion, a PE ratio of -4.89 and a beta of 1.59. The company has a fifty day moving average of $70.11 and a 200-day moving average of $86.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.95. Albemarle Co. has a one year low of $49.43 and a one year high of $137.50.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The specialty chemicals company reported ($1.09) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.60) by ($0.49). Albemarle had a negative net margin of 21.93% and a negative return on equity of 1.72%. As a group, analysts expect that Albemarle Co. will post -0.04 EPS for the current year.

Albemarle Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $0.405 dividend. This represents a $1.62 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Albemarle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -14.46%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on ALB shares. Scotiabank cut their target price on Albemarle from $85.00 to $75.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Truist Financial cut their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $85.00 to $65.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Evercore ISI cut shares of Albemarle from an “outperform” rating to an “inline” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price target on shares of Albemarle from $109.00 to $105.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, KeyCorp decreased their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $122.00 to $102.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $96.05.

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.