Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) Shares Up 7.8% Following Analyst Upgrade

Albemarle Corporation (NYSE:ALB)’s stock price was up 7.8% during mid-day trading on Friday after UBS Group upgraded the stock from a neutral rating to a buy rating. UBS Group now has a $185.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $107.00. Albemarle traded as high as $128.95 and last traded at $128.4630. Approximately 1,025,756 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 71% from the average daily volume of 3,597,630 shares. The stock had previously closed at $119.14.

ALB has been the topic of several other reports. Rothschild Redb upgraded shares of Albemarle to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 24th. Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Albemarle from $92.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 13th. Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Albemarle in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Zacks Research cut shares of Albemarle from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $105.00 to $124.00 in a research report on Monday, October 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Albemarle has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $107.46.

Institutional Trading of Albemarle

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in ALB. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Albemarle by 0.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,672,272 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,056,697,000 after purchasing an additional 77,773 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,954,331 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $184,782,000 after buying an additional 59,104 shares in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 48.5% during the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 2,870,110 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $179,870,000 after buying an additional 937,538 shares in the last quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Albemarle during the 3rd quarter worth $138,723,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Albemarle by 28.7% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,538,706 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $110,814,000 after buying an additional 343,210 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

Albemarle Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 2.27 and a quick ratio of 1.51. The stock has a market cap of $14.74 billion, a P/E ratio of -78.75 and a beta of 1.43. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $103.99 and a 200-day simple moving average of $82.89.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The specialty chemicals company reported ($0.19) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.92) by $0.73. The company had revenue of $1.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.27 billion. Albemarle had a negative net margin of 0.43% and a positive return on equity of 0.10%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted ($1.55) EPS. Research analysts forecast that Albemarle Corporation will post -0.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Albemarle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.405 per share. This represents a $1.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 12th. Albemarle’s payout ratio is presently -101.89%.

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.