Focus Partners Wealth Takes $5.53 Million Position in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB)

Focus Partners Wealth bought a new stake in shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 64,271 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,532,000. Focus Partners Wealth owned approximately 0.05% of Albemarle at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Ethic Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Albemarle by 80.4% during the 4th quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 29,990 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $2,582,000 after purchasing an additional 13,364 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its stake in Albemarle by 24.6% during the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 602,304 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $51,846,000 after acquiring an additional 119,026 shares in the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its stake in Albemarle by 48.1% during the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 3,998 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $344,000 after acquiring an additional 1,298 shares in the last quarter. Blue Capital Inc. bought a new stake in Albemarle during the fourth quarter worth about $3,165,000. Finally, Chapman Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Albemarle during the fourth quarter worth about $60,000. Institutional investors own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

Albemarle Stock Performance

ALB opened at $60.75 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $7.15 billion, a P/E ratio of -5.42 and a beta of 1.71. Albemarle Co. has a 1-year low of $49.43 and a 1-year high of $137.50. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $63.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $82.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.19.

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 business had revenue of $1.08 billion during 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%. The company’s revenue was down 20.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.26 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Albemarle Co. will post -0.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Albemarle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be given a $0.405 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.67%. Albemarle’s payout ratio is currently -14.57%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on ALB. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $75.00 to $65.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $150.00 to $140.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $80.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. Evercore ISI cut shares of Albemarle from an “outperform” rating to an “inline” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of Albemarle from $77.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Albemarle has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $92.43.

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.