Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) was the target of a large increase in short interest during the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 7,690,000 shares, an increase of 18.5% from the August 15th total of 6,490,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,780,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.3 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. bought a new position in shares of Albemarle during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $168,000. Manhattan West Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Albemarle by 46.2% during the 2nd quarter. Manhattan West Asset Management LLC now owns 9,724 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $2,169,000 after acquiring an additional 3,075 shares during the last quarter. Delphi Management Inc. MA bought a new position in shares of Albemarle during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,183,000. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group bought a new position in shares of Albemarle during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $406,000. Finally, CTC Alternative Strategies Ltd. bought a new stake in Albemarle in the second quarter worth $201,000. 84.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on ALB. HSBC decreased their target price on Albemarle from $360.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Friday, June 23rd. KeyCorp boosted their target price on Albemarle from $270.00 to $291.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 26th. StockNews.com downgraded Albemarle from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 13th. Bank of America boosted their price target on Albemarle from $200.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, August 4th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price target on Albemarle from $260.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 7th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Albemarle presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $273.76.

Albemarle Stock Down 1.2 %

NYSE ALB opened at $181.62 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $201.22 and its 200 day moving average is $207.86. The company has a current ratio of 1.74, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. Albemarle has a 12 month low of $171.82 and a 12 month high of $334.55. The stock has a market cap of $21.31 billion, a PE ratio of 5.46, a P/E/G ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 1.56.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The specialty chemicals company reported $7.33 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.27 by $3.06. Albemarle had a return on equity of 45.88% and a net margin of 40.55%. The company had revenue of $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.42 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.45 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 60.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Albemarle will post 26.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Albemarle Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 15th will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 14th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.88%. Albemarle’s dividend payout ratio is currently 4.81%.

Albemarle Company Profile

Albemarle Corporation develops, manufactures, and markets engineered specialty chemicals worldwide. It operates through three segments: Lithium, Bromine, and Catalysts. The Lithium segment offers lithium compounds, including lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide, lithium chloride, and lithium specialties and reagents, such as butyllithium and lithium aluminum hydride for use in lithium batteries for consumer electronics and electric vehicles, high performance greases, thermoplastic elastomers for car tires, rubber soles, plastic bottles, catalysts for chemical reactions, organic synthesis processes in the areas of steroid chemistry and vitamins, life sciences, pharmaceutical industry, and other markets.