Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) Raises Dividend to $0.41 Per Share

Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, July 16th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be paid a dividend of 0.405 per share by the specialty chemicals company on Tuesday, October 1st. This represents a $1.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.81%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. This is a boost from Albemarle’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40.

Albemarle has increased its dividend by an average of 1.3% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 30 years. Albemarle has a payout ratio of 47.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Albemarle to earn $3.13 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.62 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 51.8%.

Albemarle Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ALB opened at $89.36 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 2.67 and a quick ratio of 1.75. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $88.18 and its 200-day moving average price is $108.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.50 billion, a PE ratio of 32.49, a P/E/G ratio of 6.92 and a beta of 1.54. Albemarle has a 1 year low of $71.97 and a 1 year high of $188.47.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by ($0.49). The firm had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.34 billion. Albemarle had a positive return on equity of 6.38% and a negative net margin of 6.72%. The business’s revenue was down 39.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $7.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Albemarle will post 0.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Albemarle from $115.00 to $78.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 19th. KeyCorp reduced their price objective on Albemarle from $151.00 to $132.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Albemarle from $137.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Albemarle to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Mizuho reduced their price objective on Albemarle from $128.00 to $103.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Albemarle presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $117.10.

About Albemarle

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.