ProShare Advisors LLC Acquires 589,787 Shares of Albemarle Corporation $ALB

ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Albemarle Corporation (NYSE:ALB) by 69.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,436,117 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after buying an additional 589,787 shares during the quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC’s holdings in Albemarle were worth $151,912,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sigma Planning Corp grew its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 2.3% during the first quarter. Sigma Planning Corp now owns 2,952 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $530,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS grew its holdings in Albemarle by 0.3% in the first quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 27,452 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $4,928,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 0.6% during the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 11,664 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $2,082,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Cadence Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 1.8% in the 1st quarter. Cadence Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,982 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $894,000 after purchasing an additional 87 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Parkside Financial Bank & Trust grew its position in Albemarle by 7.0% in the 2nd quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 1,584 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $214,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on ALB shares. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $200.00 to $190.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 10th. UBS Group dropped their target price on Albemarle from $175.00 to $150.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 5th. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $175.00 price target on shares of Albemarle in a research report on Tuesday, October 6th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Albemarle from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 10th. Finally, Truist Financial lowered their price target on shares of Albemarle from $225.00 to $185.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 20th. Fifteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Albemarle presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $179.41.

Albemarle Trading Down 2.4%

Shares of ALB stock opened at $91.00 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $10.74 billion, a PE ratio of 337.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.54 and a beta of 1.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a current ratio of 2.09. The business’s fifty day moving average is $111.88 and its 200 day moving average is $149.82. Albemarle Corporation has a 52-week low of $88.01 and a 52-week high of $221.00.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The specialty chemicals company reported $3.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.20 by $0.55. The company had revenue of $1.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.61 billion. Albemarle had a net margin of 3.09% and a return on equity of 10.96%. Albemarle’s revenue for the quarter was up 31.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.11 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Albemarle Corporation will post 11.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Albemarle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 4th. Investors of record on Friday, December 18th will be given a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 18th. Albemarle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 607.41%.

Albemarle Company 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.