SVB Wealth LLC Purchases New Position in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB)

SVB Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 7,232 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $623,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State of Alaska Department of Revenue increased its holdings in Albemarle by 7.3% in the 3rd quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 13,662 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $1,293,000 after purchasing an additional 925 shares in the last quarter. abrdn plc increased its holdings in Albemarle by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. abrdn plc now owns 42,529 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $4,031,000 after purchasing an additional 146 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. acquired a new position in Albemarle in the 3rd quarter worth about $269,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Albemarle by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,832 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $268,000 after purchasing an additional 102 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Optas LLC acquired a new position in Albemarle in the 3rd quarter worth about $266,000. 92.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Albemarle

In other Albemarle news, CEO J Kent Masters sold 2,525 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.12, for a total value of $255,328.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 73,747 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,457,296.64. This trade represents a 3.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.38% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on ALB. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on Albemarle from $90.00 to $85.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 20th. KeyCorp dropped their price target on shares of Albemarle from $127.00 to $122.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Truist Financial dropped their price target on shares of Albemarle from $96.00 to $85.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on shares of Albemarle from $103.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Albemarle from $133.00 to $114.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Albemarle has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $109.68.

Albemarle Stock Down 9.2 %

ALB stock opened at $69.93 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $85.10 and its 200 day simple moving average is $92.19. Albemarle Co. has a fifty-two week low of $69.81 and a fifty-two week high of $140.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.95. The company has a market cap of $8.22 billion, a P/E ratio of -6.24 and a beta of 1.59.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The specialty chemicals company reported ($1.09) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.60) by ($0.49). Albemarle had a negative return on equity of 1.72% and a negative net margin of 21.93%. On average, research analysts expect that Albemarle Co. will post -0.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Albemarle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.405 dividend. This represents a $1.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Albemarle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -14.46%.

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.