Capital Investment Advisory Services LLC Buys 2,490 Shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB)

Capital Investment Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) by 201.8% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 3,724 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,490 shares during the period. Capital Investment Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Albemarle were worth $538,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in ALB. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Albemarle by 16.6% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 2,296 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $373,000 after buying an additional 327 shares in the last quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Albemarle by 75.8% in the third quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC now owns 13,038 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $2,217,000 after purchasing an additional 5,620 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in Albemarle by 72.3% in the third quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 305 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $52,000 after purchasing an additional 128 shares during the period. RFG Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in Albemarle in the third quarter worth about $435,000. Finally, Legacy Capital Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Albemarle in the third quarter worth about $213,000. 92.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on ALB. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Albemarle from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Albemarle from $137.00 to $125.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. KeyCorp reduced their target price on Albemarle from $178.00 to $159.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut Albemarle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $155.00 to $135.00 in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on Albemarle from $140.00 to $138.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 16th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $175.05.

Albemarle Trading Up 0.1 %

NYSE ALB opened at $112.30 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.42, a PEG ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 1.62. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $122.89 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $128.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 1.47. Albemarle Co. has a 52 week low of $106.69 and a 52 week high of $247.44.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.85 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.99 by $0.86. The firm had revenue of $2.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.18 billion. Albemarle had a return on equity of 26.62% and a net margin of 16.36%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $8.62 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Albemarle Co. will post 3.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Albemarle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.42%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. Albemarle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 11.99%.

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.