Albemarle Co. to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.40 (NYSE:ALB)

Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, May 7th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.40 per share by the specialty chemicals company on Monday, July 1st. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.22%.

Albemarle has raised its dividend payment by an average of 1.3% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 29 consecutive years. Albemarle has a payout ratio of 19.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Albemarle to earn $6.95 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 23.0%.

Albemarle Price Performance

Albemarle stock traded up $0.77 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $131.55. The company had a trading volume of 2,395,721 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,202,515. The company has a market capitalization of $15.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.27, a P/E/G ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 1.65. Albemarle has a 12-month low of $106.69 and a 12-month high of $247.44. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $123.45 and its 200-day simple moving average is $125.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 2.84 and a quick ratio of 1.91.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by ($0.09). The company had revenue of $1.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.29 billion. Albemarle had a net margin of 4.02% and a return on equity of 14.53%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 47.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $10.32 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Albemarle will post 2.86 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Vertical Research lowered shares of Albemarle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $145.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Friday, March 8th. Bank of America raised shares of Albemarle from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $137.00 to $156.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Albemarle from $138.00 to $157.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday. KeyCorp cut their price target on shares of Albemarle from $178.00 to $159.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, Berenberg Bank upgraded shares of Albemarle from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $130.00 to $160.00 in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Albemarle currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $172.05.

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.