ProShare Advisors LLC Purchases 937,538 Shares of Albemarle Corporation $ALB

ProShare Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Albemarle Corporation (NYSE:ALB) by 48.5% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 2,870,110 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after buying an additional 937,538 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC’s holdings in Albemarle were worth $179,870,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in ALB. WealthPlan Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Albemarle by 10.7% during the first quarter. WealthPlan Investment Management LLC now owns 50,326 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $3,624,000 after buying an additional 4,872 shares during the period. Grandfield & Dodd LLC grew its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 5.2% during the first quarter. Grandfield & Dodd LLC now owns 243,036 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $17,503,000 after buying an additional 12,014 shares during the last quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Albemarle in the 1st quarter valued at $271,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Albemarle by 3.6% in 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 acquiring an additional 6,487 shares during the period. Finally, Bard Financial Services Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Albemarle in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,850,000. 92.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ALB. Citigroup raised their target price on Albemarle from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. Argus raised their price target on shares of Albemarle from $90.00 to $120.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Cowen reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Albemarle in a research report on Thursday, October 9th. Rothschild Redb raised Albemarle to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 24th. Finally, Baird R W lowered shares of Albemarle from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Hold rating and five have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $95.74.

Albemarle Stock Up 6.4%

Shares of NYSE ALB opened at $97.08 on Monday. Albemarle Corporation has a 1 year low of $49.43 and a 1 year high of $113.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 2.31. The firm has a market cap of $11.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.42 and a beta of 1.70. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $88.11 and its 200-day simple moving average is $74.48.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last released 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 net margin of 18.61% and a negative return on equity of 1.87%. The company had revenue of $1.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.27 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($1.55) EPS. The company’s revenue was down 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Albemarle Corporation will post -0.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Albemarle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, December 12th will be issued a $0.405 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 12th. This represents a $1.62 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.7%. Albemarle’s dividend payout ratio 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.