Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) Raised to Sell at StockNews.com

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) was upgraded by equities researchers at StockNews.com to a “sell” rating in a report issued on Monday.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on ALB. Mizuho lowered their price objective on Albemarle from $90.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $133.00 to $114.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Scotiabank reduced their target price on shares of Albemarle from $85.00 to $75.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on shares of Albemarle from $77.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Albemarle from $85.00 to $64.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $92.43.

Albemarle Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of ALB stock opened at $57.52 on Monday. Albemarle has a fifty-two week low of $49.43 and a fifty-two week 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 stock’s fifty day moving average is $65.58 and its two-hundred day moving average is $83.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.77 billion, a P/E ratio of -5.14 and a beta of 1.71.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The specialty chemicals company reported ($0.18) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.62) by $0.44. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.18 billion. Albemarle had a negative net margin of 21.93% and a negative return on equity of 1.72%. Albemarle’s quarterly revenue was down 20.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.26 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Albemarle will post -0.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Albemarle

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Albemarle in the fourth quarter valued at $85,570,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Albemarle in the 4th quarter valued at about $39,405,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Albemarle by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,594,499 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $1,256,294,000 after buying an additional 359,014 shares during the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA increased its position in Albemarle by 36.7% during the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 1,192,527 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $102,653,000 after buying an additional 320,150 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 6,393.1% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 152,394 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $10,975,000 after acquiring an additional 150,047 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

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.