WP Advisors LLC Acquires New Position in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB)

WP Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 2,341 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $338,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in ALB. Kraft Davis & Associates LLC grew its stake in shares of Albemarle by 17.5% during the fourth quarter. Kraft Davis & Associates LLC now owns 1,904 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $275,000 after buying an additional 283 shares during the last quarter. Opes Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Opes Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,826 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $986,000 after buying an additional 140 shares in the last quarter. Xponance Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 15,196 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $2,196,000 after buying an additional 423 shares in the last quarter. AIA Group Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 10.1% during the fourth quarter. AIA Group Ltd now owns 6,292 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $909,000 after buying an additional 576 shares in the last quarter. Finally, OLD Second National Bank of Aurora increased its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. OLD Second National Bank of Aurora now owns 13,881 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $2,006,000 after buying an additional 172 shares in the last quarter. 92.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on ALB. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on shares of Albemarle from $140.00 to $138.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 16th. KeyCorp lowered their price target on shares of Albemarle from $178.00 to $159.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Vertical Research cut shares of Albemarle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $145.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Friday, March 8th. Loop Capital reduced their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $168.00 to $162.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Finally, TD Cowen cut shares of Albemarle from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $220.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $175.05.

Albemarle Stock Performance

Shares of ALB opened at $112.15 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 1.62. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $123.05 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $129.28. Albemarle Co. has a 12 month low of $106.69 and a 12 month high of $247.44.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by $0.86. The company had revenue of $2.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.18 billion. Albemarle had a net margin of 16.36% and a return on equity of 26.62%. The business’s revenue was down 10.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $8.62 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Albemarle Co. will post 3.09 EPS for the current year.

Albemarle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.43%. Albemarle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 11.99%.

Albemarle Company 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.