Albemarle Corporation $ALB Position Increased by Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd

Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd grew its position in Albemarle Corporation (NYSE:ALB) by 1,565.3% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 59,451 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after acquiring an additional 55,881 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd’s holdings in Albemarle were worth $6,289,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ALB. Primecap Management Co. CA bought a new position in shares of Albemarle during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $358,101,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its position in Albemarle by 78.5% during the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 730,745 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $131,191,000 after acquiring an additional 321,400 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG purchased a new stake in Albemarle during the second quarter valued at approximately $131,049,000. Sei Investments Co. boosted its stake in Albemarle by 0.7% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 652,674 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $117,178,000 after acquiring an additional 4,374 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi boosted its stake in Albemarle by 40.5% in the second quarter. Amundi now owns 827,874 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $111,784,000 after acquiring an additional 238,774 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on ALB. Barclays assumed coverage on shares of Albemarle in a report on Monday, October 12th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $109.00 price target on the stock. Weiss Ratings upgraded Albemarle from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Thursday, October 8th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Albemarle from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, October 10th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Albemarle from $225.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Finally, Truist Financial lowered their price objective on Albemarle from $225.00 to $185.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Sixteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $179.00.

Albemarle Stock Performance

ALB opened at $94.39 on Thursday. Albemarle Corporation has a 52-week low of $88.01 and a 52-week high of $221.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 2.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The company has a market cap of $11.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 349.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.57 and a beta of 1.36. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $117.26 and its 200-day moving average price is $143.72.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The specialty chemicals company reported $3.75 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.20 by $0.55. The firm had revenue of $1.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.61 billion. Albemarle had a net margin of 3.09% and a return on equity of 10.96%. Albemarle’s revenue was up 31.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.11 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Albemarle Corporation will post 11.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Albemarle Profile

Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB) is a global specialty chemicals company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. The company develops, manufactures, and markets engineered chemicals used in energy storage, transportation, refining, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, consumer products, and other industrial applications.

Albemarle is one of the world’s major producers of lithium and supplies lithium compounds, including lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide, for use in rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles, portable electronics, and grid energy-storage systems.