Albemarle Corporation $ALB Shares Acquired by Old West Investment Management LLC

Old West Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Albemarle Corporation (NYSE:ALB) by 19.4% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 53,817 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,727 shares during the quarter. Old West Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Albemarle were worth $3,373,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. WealthPlan Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Albemarle by 10.7% during the 1st quarter. WealthPlan Investment Management LLC now owns 50,326 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $3,624,000 after acquiring an additional 4,872 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Albemarle by 3.6% during the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 184,426 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $13,282,000 after purchasing an additional 6,487 shares during the period. Bard Financial Services Inc. acquired a new position in Albemarle during the second quarter valued at $1,850,000. Leibman Financial Services Inc. boosted its holdings in Albemarle by 14.6% in the second quarter. Leibman Financial Services Inc. now owns 48,871 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $3,063,000 after purchasing an additional 6,237 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bristlecone Advisors LLC grew its position in Albemarle by 37.8% during the 1st quarter. Bristlecone Advisors LLC now owns 39,714 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $2,860,000 after purchasing an additional 10,890 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ALB has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on Albemarle from $105.00 to $124.00 in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Rothschild Redb upgraded Albemarle to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Albemarle in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $85.00 to $107.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of Albemarle from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Hold rating and five have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Albemarle presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $99.38.

Albemarle Stock Up 3.9%

Shares of ALB opened at $114.59 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $13.49 billion, a P/E ratio of -12.30 and a beta of 1.70. Albemarle Corporation has a 12 month low of $49.43 and a 12 month high of $119.28. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $90.28 and its two-hundred day moving average is $75.64. 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 announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The specialty chemicals company reported ($0.19) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.92) by $0.73. Albemarle had a negative return on equity of 1.87% and a negative net margin of 18.61%.The business had revenue of $1.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.27 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($1.55) EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Albemarle Corporation will post -0.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Albemarle Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.405 per share. This represents a $1.62 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 12th. Albemarle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -101.89%.

Albemarle 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.