Gallo Partners LP Purchases Shares of 17,936 Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB)

Gallo Partners LP purchased a new stake in shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 17,936 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,544,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Albemarle during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $85,570,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Albemarle in the 4th quarter worth about $39,405,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Albemarle by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,594,499 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $1,256,294,000 after acquiring an additional 359,014 shares in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its stake in shares of Albemarle by 36.7% during 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 acquiring an additional 320,150 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aquatic Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 294.7% in the fourth quarter. Aquatic Capital Management LLC now owns 187,072 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $16,103,000 after purchasing an additional 139,672 shares during the period. 92.87% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on ALB shares. Scotiabank decreased their target price on Albemarle from $85.00 to $75.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Albemarle from $86.00 to $64.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on shares of Albemarle from $77.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. KeyCorp reduced 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. Finally, Truist Financial dropped their target price on Albemarle from $85.00 to $65.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Albemarle has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $96.05.

Albemarle Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ALB opened at $59.47 on Wednesday. Albemarle Co. has a 52 week low of $49.43 and a 52 week high of $137.50. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $67.65 and its 200 day moving average price is $85.00. 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 market cap of $7.00 billion, a P/E ratio of -5.31 and a beta of 1.59.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last announced 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%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Albemarle Co. will post -0.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Albemarle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.405 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.72%. Albemarle’s dividend payout ratio is currently -14.46%.

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.