Head to Head Comparison: Albemarle (ALB) and Its Competitors

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) is one of 295 publicly-traded companies in the “Chemicals” industry, but how does it compare to its rivals? We will compare Albemarle to similar companies based on the strength of its analyst recommendations, profitability, risk, earnings, valuation, dividends and institutional ownership.

Profitability

This table compares Albemarle and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Albemarle	10.40%	15.23%	7.62%
Albemarle Competitors	-59.66%	0.26%	-1.43%

Risk and Volatility

Albemarle has a beta of 1.34, suggesting that its share price is 34% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Albemarle’s rivals have a beta of 1.09, suggesting that their average share price is 9% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Albemarle and its rivals gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Albemarle	$5.91 billion	-$510.63 million	23.89
Albemarle Competitors	$8.01 billion	$222.31 million	-0.77

Albemarle’s rivals have higher revenue and earnings than Albemarle. Albemarle is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Albemarle and its rivals, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Albemarle	3	7	15	0	2.48
Albemarle Competitors	3245	12203	14127	516	2.40

Albemarle presently has a consensus target price of $177.64, indicating a potential upside of 79.62%. As a group, “Chemicals” companies have a potential upside of 8.13%. Given Albemarle’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Albemarle is more favorable than its rivals.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

92.9% of Albemarle shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 47.5% of shares of all “Chemicals” companies are held by institutional investors. 0.4% of Albemarle shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 13.7% of shares of all “Chemicals” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Albemarle pays an annual dividend of $1.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Albemarle pays out 39.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Chemicals” companies pay a dividend yield of 3.1% and pay out 102.8% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Albemarle has raised its dividend for 30 consecutive years.

Summary

Albemarle beats its rivals on 10 of the 15 factors compared.

About Albemarle

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. The Specialties segment provides bromine-based specialty chemicals, including elemental bromine, alkyl and inorganic bromides, brominated powdered activated carbon, and other bromine fine chemicals; lithium specialties, such as butyllithium and lithium aluminum hydride; develops and manufactures cesium products for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries; and zirconium, barium, and titanium products for pyrotechnical applications that include airbag initiators. The Ketjen segment offers clean fuels technologies (CFT), which is composed of hydroprocessing catalysts (HPC) together with isomerization and akylation catalysts; fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC) catalysts and additives; and performance catalyst solutions (PCS), which is composed of organometallics and curatives. The company serves the energy storage, petroleum refining, consumer electronics, construction, automotive, lubricants, pharmaceuticals, and crop protection markets. Albemarle Corporation was founded in 1887 and is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.