Sei Investments Co. Grows Stock Holdings in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB)

Sei Investments Co. increased its position in shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) by 3.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 531,690 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after acquiring an additional 17,687 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. owned about 0.45% of Albemarle worth $45,767,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ALB. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Albemarle by 0.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,741,906 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $258,797,000 after purchasing an additional 14,874 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Albemarle by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,040,970 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $89,607,000 after buying an additional 20,380 shares in the last quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Albemarle in the fourth quarter worth $85,570,000. Empower Advisory Group LLC increased its position in shares of Albemarle by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC now owns 741,484 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $63,827,000 after acquiring an additional 35,765 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Albemarle by 67.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 658,145 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $62,333,000 after acquiring an additional 264,756 shares in the last quarter. 92.87% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Albemarle from $73.00 to $68.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on shares of Albemarle from $133.00 to $114.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. KeyCorp lowered their price target on shares of Albemarle from $127.00 to $122.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 14th. Mizuho decreased their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $90.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered Albemarle from an “outperform” rating to an “inline” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $104.30.

Albemarle Trading Up 0.2 %

NYSE ALB opened at $77.70 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $81.43 and its two-hundred day moving average is $91.04. Albemarle Co. has a one year low of $67.23 and a one year high of $137.50. 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 firm has a market cap of $9.13 billion, a PE ratio of -6.94 and a beta of 1.70.

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

Albemarle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.405 dividend. This represents a $1.62 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.09%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Albemarle’s payout ratio is -14.46%.

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.