Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) Shares Sold by TAP Consulting LLC

TAP Consulting LLC lessened its stake in shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) by 34.7% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 6,658 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 3,535 shares during the quarter. TAP Consulting LLC’s holdings in Albemarle were worth $962,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Barclays PLC raised its stake in shares of Albemarle by 142.3% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,043,861 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $177,499,000 after purchasing an additional 612,963 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in Albemarle by 15,046.5% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 347,763 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $502,450,000 after acquiring an additional 345,467 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in Albemarle by 12.6% in the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 1,555,937 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $224,802,000 after acquiring an additional 174,391 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in Albemarle by 14.1% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,221,765 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $207,749,000 after purchasing an additional 151,158 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of Albemarle by 10.3% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,570,906 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $267,117,000 after purchasing an additional 146,450 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on ALB. Oppenheimer decreased their target price on shares of Albemarle from $191.00 to $188.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Bank of America upgraded Albemarle from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $137.00 to $156.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Albemarle from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Berenberg Bank upgraded shares of Albemarle from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $130.00 to $160.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, KeyCorp dropped their target price on shares of Albemarle from $178.00 to $159.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $175.05.

Albemarle Trading Down 0.3 %

NYSE:ALB traded down $0.31 on Thursday, hitting $114.96. The stock had a trading volume of 1,419,927 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,237,823. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $122.90 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $128.27. The stock has a market cap of $13.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.62, a PEG ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.62. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. Albemarle Co. has a 1-year low of $106.69 and a 1-year high of $247.44.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.99 by $0.86. Albemarle had a return on equity of 26.62% and a net margin of 16.36%. The company had revenue of $2.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.18 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $8.62 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Albemarle Co. will post 3.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Albemarle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Albemarle’s payout ratio is 11.99%.

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.