Albemarle Corporation (NYSE:ALB) Stock Has Consensus Target Price of $186.57 According to Analysts

Albemarle Corporation (NYSE:ALB) has earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-five brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $185.27.

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Albemarle from $225.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $160.00 to $140.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 25th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Albemarle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 15th. Morgan Stanley restated a “reduce” rating and issued a $161.00 target price on shares of Albemarle in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their target price on shares of Albemarle from $166.00 to $157.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 10th.

Albemarle Price Performance

Albemarle stock opened at $101.90 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a current ratio of 2.09. Albemarle has a 52 week low of $88.01 and a 52 week high of $221.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 377.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.60 and a beta of 1.36. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $122.21 and a 200-day moving average of $148.78.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The specialty chemicals company reported $3.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.20 by $0.55. The business had revenue of $1.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.61 billion. Albemarle had a return on equity of 10.96% and a net margin of 3.09%.Albemarle’s revenue was up 31.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.11 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Albemarle will post 11.37 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Albemarle Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 1st. Investors of record on Friday, September 11th were issued a dividend of $0.41 per share. This is a positive change from Albemarle’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.4050. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 11th. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.6%. Albemarle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 607.41%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Albemarle

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Primecap Management Co. CA bought a new position in shares of Albemarle during the second quarter valued at $358,101,000. Deutsche Bank AG acquired a new position in shares of Albemarle during the second quarter worth $131,049,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in shares of Albemarle in the second quarter worth $103,268,000. Nykredit A S bought a new stake in shares of Albemarle in the second quarter worth $78,121,000. Finally, Altshuler Shaham Ltd acquired a new stake in Albemarle in the first quarter valued at $94,815,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

About Albemarle

Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB) is a global specialty chemicals company that develops, manufactures and markets materials used in energy storage, transportation, consumer products and industrial applications. The company is best known for its lithium business, which supplies lithium compounds used in rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles, portable electronics and energy-storage systems.

Albemarle also produces bromine-based specialty chemicals used in areas such as fire safety, water treatment, pharmaceutical manufacturing and other industrial processes.