Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) Raised to Outperform at Mizuho

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) was upgraded by equities researchers at Mizuho from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage presently has a $130.00 price objective on the specialty chemicals company’s stock. Mizuho’s target price indicates a potential upside of 32.01% from the stock’s current price.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Albemarle from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 8th. Scotiabank cut their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $200.00 to $190.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Albemarle from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Friday, October 9th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $175.00 to $150.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 5th. Finally, Barclays assumed coverage on shares of Albemarle in a research note on Monday. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $109.00 target price for the company. Sixteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Albemarle presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $181.96.

Albemarle Trading Up 0.8%

Shares of ALB traded up $0.83 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $98.48. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,252,559 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,451,477. The stock has a market cap of $11.62 billion, a PE ratio of 364.50, a P/E/G ratio of 0.58 and a beta of 1.36. The company has a current ratio of 2.09, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. Albemarle has a 52 week low of $88.01 and a 52 week high of $221.00. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $121.02 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $147.18.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The specialty chemicals company reported $3.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 31.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.11 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Albemarle will post 11.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Foster Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 17.6% during the 3rd quarter. Foster Group Inc. now owns 3,476 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $368,000 after acquiring an additional 520 shares during the period. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC raised its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 473.6% during the 3rd quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 49,249 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $5,210,000 after acquiring an additional 40,663 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 216.2% during the 3rd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 955 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $101,000 after acquiring an additional 653 shares during the period. Parrish Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 12.5% during the 3rd quarter. Parrish Capital LLC now owns 8,551 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $905,000 after acquiring an additional 947 shares during the period. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 3.6% during the 2nd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,948 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $668,000 after acquiring an additional 171 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.