GAMMA Investing LLC Purchases Shares of 1,058 Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB)

GAMMA Investing LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor purchased 1,058 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $153,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ALB. Eagle Strategies LLC raised its holdings in Albemarle by 149.3% in the third quarter. Eagle Strategies LLC now owns 14,058 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $2,391,000 after buying an additional 8,420 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG grew its position in Albemarle by 5.4% during the third quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 283,876 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $48,270,000 after buying an additional 14,593 shares during the period. Kestra Advisory Services LLC grew its position in Albemarle by 80.3% during the third quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC now owns 19,757 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $3,359,000 after buying an additional 8,799 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in shares of Albemarle by 8.9% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 412,821 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $70,179,000 after purchasing an additional 33,662 shares during the period. Finally, Pinnacle Associates Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Albemarle by 235.9% in the fourth quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. now owns 12,107 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $1,749,000 after purchasing an additional 8,503 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on ALB. Bank of America upgraded shares of Albemarle from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $137.00 to $156.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. KeyCorp reduced their target price on shares of Albemarle from $178.00 to $159.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. TD Cowen downgraded shares of Albemarle from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $220.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Berenberg Bank raised shares of Albemarle from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $130.00 to $160.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of Albemarle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $155.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Three 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Albemarle currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $175.05.

Albemarle Stock Up 1.7 %

Shares of Albemarle stock opened at $116.88 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 0.86. Albemarle Co. has a 1 year low of $106.69 and a 1 year high of $247.44. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $122.79 and its two-hundred day moving average is $128.00. The stock has a market cap of $13.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.76, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.62.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by $0.86. Albemarle had a net margin of 16.36% and a return on equity of 26.62%. The business had revenue of $2.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.18 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $8.62 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Albemarle Co. will post 3.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Albemarle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were given a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.37%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. Albemarle’s payout ratio is currently 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.