SG Americas Securities LLC Grows Stake in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB)

SG Americas Securities LLC increased its stake in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) by 1,153.5% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 52,135 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after acquiring an additional 47,976 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC’s holdings in Albemarle were worth $3,755,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ALB. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Albemarle in the fourth quarter worth about $39,405,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted 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 worth $1,256,294,000 after purchasing an additional 359,014 shares during the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA lifted 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 worth $102,653,000 after purchasing an additional 320,150 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Albemarle by 6,393.1% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 152,394 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $10,975,000 after purchasing an additional 150,047 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Man Group plc lifted its stake in Albemarle by 1,213.0% in the fourth quarter. Man Group plc now owns 158,649 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $13,657,000 after purchasing an additional 146,566 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $85.00 to $64.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Piper Sandler set a $68.00 price objective on shares of Albemarle and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $75.00 to $65.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $77.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, KeyCorp decreased their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $102.00 to $95.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Albemarle currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $91.62.

Albemarle Trading Down 2.9%

Shares of NYSE:ALB opened at $60.65 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $7.14 billion, a PE ratio of -5.41 and a beta of 1.61. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. Albemarle Co. has a 12-month low of $49.43 and a 12-month high of $113.91. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $58.06 and its 200-day simple moving average is $75.68.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The specialty chemicals company reported ($0.18) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.62) by $0.44. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.18 billion. Albemarle had a negative return on equity of 1.72% and a negative net margin of 21.93%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 20.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.26 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Albemarle Co. will post -0.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Albemarle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be given a $0.405 dividend. This represents a $1.62 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.67%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 13th. Albemarle’s payout ratio is -14.57%.

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.