Albemarle Corporation $ALB Shares Bought by QRG Capital Management Inc.

QRG Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Albemarle Corporation (NYSE:ALB) by 25.7% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 3,688 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after purchasing an additional 755 shares during the period. QRG Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Albemarle were worth $231,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. 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 worth $1,056,697,000 after acquiring an additional 77,773 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Albemarle by 28.7% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,538,706 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $110,814,000 after acquiring an additional 343,210 shares during the period. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC raised its position in Albemarle by 17.4% during the first quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC now owns 1,167,520 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $84,085,000 after acquiring an additional 173,441 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Albemarle by 3.1% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,072,921 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $77,272,000 after acquiring an additional 31,951 shares during the period. Finally, PGGM Investments raised its position in Albemarle by 90.4% during the second quarter. PGGM Investments now owns 1,069,924 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $67,052,000 after acquiring an additional 507,975 shares during the period. 92.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ALB has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $58.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 29th. Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Albemarle in a research report on Thursday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $74.00 target price on shares of Albemarle and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Albemarle from $90.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Finally, KeyCorp reiterated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Albemarle in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $87.35.

Albemarle Price Performance

Albemarle stock opened at $90.04 on Monday. Albemarle Corporation has a 12-month low of $49.43 and a 12-month high of $113.91. The stock has a market cap of $10.60 billion, a P/E ratio of -9.66 and a beta of 1.65. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $81.38 and a 200 day moving average price of $69.25. The company has a current ratio of 2.31, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.83) by $0.94. Albemarle had a negative net margin of 18.61% and a negative return on equity of 1.87%. The firm had revenue of $1.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.23 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.04 earnings per share. Albemarle’s revenue was down 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Albemarle has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Albemarle Corporation will post -0.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Albemarle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 1st. Investors of record on Friday, September 12th were given a dividend of $0.405 per share. This represents a $1.62 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 12th. Albemarle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -17.38%.

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.