Taylor Hoffman Capital Management LLC Takes $1.21 Million Position in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB)

Taylor Hoffman Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 14,034 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,208,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in ALB. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Albemarle in the fourth quarter valued at $85,570,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Albemarle in the fourth quarter valued at $39,405,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased 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 buying an additional 359,014 shares during the period. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA increased its stake in Albemarle by 36.7% in the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 1,192,527 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $102,653,000 after buying an additional 320,150 shares during the period. Finally, Man Group plc increased its stake in Albemarle by 1,213.0% in the 4th quarter. Man Group plc now owns 158,649 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $13,657,000 after buying an additional 146,566 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 analyst reports. TD Securities reduced their price target on shares of Albemarle from $115.00 to $65.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Albemarle from $80.00 to $60.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Albemarle to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, May 5th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Albemarle from $68.00 to $58.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. Finally, Truist Financial lowered their target price on shares of Albemarle from $85.00 to $65.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $91.62.

Albemarle Price Performance

NYSE:ALB opened at $59.34 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.19. The firm has a market cap of $6.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.30 and a beta of 1.71. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $62.67 and a 200-day moving average price of $81.17. Albemarle Co. has a 1-year low of $49.43 and a 1-year high of $130.80.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The specialty chemicals company reported ($0.18) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.62) by $0.44. Albemarle had a negative net margin of 21.93% and a negative return on equity of 1.72%. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.18 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.26 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 20.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Albemarle Co. will post -0.04 EPS for the current year.

Albemarle Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Investors of record on Friday, June 13th will be paid a $0.405 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.73%. Albemarle’s dividend payout ratio is currently -14.57%.

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.