Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Saturday morning,Wall Street Zen reports.

ALB has been the subject of a number of other research reports. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $175.00 target price on shares of Albemarle in a report on Tuesday, October 6th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Albemarle from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, July 20th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $244.00 to $211.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed a “reduce” rating and set a $161.00 price objective on shares of Albemarle in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of Albemarle from $236.00 to $224.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Fifteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $181.96.

Albemarle Price Performance

Albemarle stock opened at $98.47 on Friday. Albemarle has a one year low of $88.01 and a one year high of $221.00. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $121.48 and a 200-day moving average price of $147.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 2.09 and a quick ratio of 1.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 364.70, a PEG ratio of 0.60 and a beta of 1.36.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The specialty chemicals company reported $3.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.20 by $0.55. The company had revenue of $1.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.61 billion. Albemarle had a return on equity of 10.96% and a net margin of 3.09%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 31.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.11 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Albemarle will post 11.25 EPS for the current year.

Albemarle Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 11th were given a dividend of $0.41 per share. This is a boost from Albemarle’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.4050. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 11th. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.7%. Albemarle’s dividend payout ratio is 607.41%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Primecap Management Co. CA purchased a new position in shares of Albemarle in the second quarter valued at about $358,101,000. Deutsche Bank AG purchased a new stake in shares of Albemarle during the second quarter worth about $131,049,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Albemarle during the second quarter worth about $103,268,000. Nykredit A S purchased a new stake in shares of Albemarle during the second quarter worth about $78,121,000. Finally, Altshuler Shaham Ltd bought a new stake in Albemarle during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $94,815,000. 92.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Albemarle Company Profile

Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB) is a global specialty chemicals company that develops, manufactures and markets materials used in energy storage, transportation, consumer products and industrial applications. The company is best known for its lithium business, which supplies lithium compounds used in rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles, portable electronics and energy-storage systems.

Albemarle also produces bromine-based specialty chemicals used in areas such as fire safety, water treatment, pharmaceutical manufacturing and other industrial processes.