Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) Upgraded to “Buy” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report report published on Saturday morning,Wall Street Zen reports.

ALB has been the subject of a number of other reports. Morgan Stanley reiterated a “reduce” rating and issued a $161.00 price target on shares of Albemarle in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Albemarle from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, July 20th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their target price on shares of Albemarle from $166.00 to $157.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 10th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Albemarle from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn lowered their price target on Albemarle from $188.00 to $170.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Fifteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $185.27.

Albemarle Stock Down 0.8%

ALB stock opened at $101.28 on Friday. Albemarle has a 1-year low of $88.01 and a 1-year high of $221.00. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $121.89 and a 200-day moving average price of $148.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 2.09 and a quick ratio of 1.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 375.14, a P/E/G ratio of 0.60 and a beta of 1.36.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The specialty chemicals company reported $3.75 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.20 by $0.55. Albemarle had a return on equity of 10.96% and a net margin of 3.09%. The company had revenue of $1.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.61 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.11 earnings per share. Albemarle’s revenue was up 31.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Albemarle will post 11.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Albemarle Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 11th were paid a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.6%. This is a boost from Albemarle’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.4050. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 11th. Albemarle’s dividend payout ratio is currently 607.41%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Primecap Management Co. CA purchased a new stake in Albemarle in the 2nd quarter worth $358,101,000. Deutsche Bank AG purchased a new position in shares of Albemarle in the second quarter valued at about $131,049,000. Amundi boosted its stake in shares of Albemarle by 40.5% in the second quarter. Amundi now owns 827,874 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $111,784,000 after acquiring an additional 238,774 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in shares of Albemarle in the second quarter worth about $103,268,000. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its position in shares of Albemarle by 78.5% during the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 730,745 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $131,191,000 after purchasing an additional 321,400 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

Albemarle Company Profile

Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB) is a global specialty chemicals company that develops, manufactures and markets materials used in energy storage, transportation, consumer products and industrial applications. The company is best known for its lithium business, which supplies lithium compounds used in rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles, portable electronics and energy-storage systems.

Albemarle also produces bromine-based specialty chemicals used in areas such as fire safety, water treatment, pharmaceutical manufacturing and other industrial processes.