Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) Holdings Cut by Probity Advisors Inc.

Probity Advisors Inc. decreased its stake in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) by 29.7% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 3,247 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 1,372 shares during the quarter. Probity Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Albemarle were worth $308,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ALB. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its stake in shares of Albemarle by 239.7% during the 2nd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 53,793 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $5,138,000 after purchasing an additional 37,958 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Albemarle by 22.5% during the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 190,526 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $25,100,000 after purchasing an additional 35,003 shares during the last quarter. MBB Public Markets I LLC increased its stake in shares of Albemarle by 392.6% during the 2nd quarter. MBB Public Markets I LLC now owns 7,916 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $756,000 after purchasing an additional 6,309 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Albemarle by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 23,874 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $3,449,000 after purchasing an additional 756 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new position in shares of Albemarle during the 1st quarter worth $202,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Baird R W lowered shares of Albemarle from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Robert W. Baird lowered shares of Albemarle from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $102.00 to $85.00 in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Scotiabank lowered their target price on shares of Albemarle from $135.00 to $85.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Albemarle to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Albemarle from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $117.60.

Albemarle Price Performance

NYSE:ALB opened at $94.63 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $89.32 and a 200-day moving average of $103.30. The company has a market capitalization of $11.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.41, a PEG ratio of 13.81 and a beta of 1.54. Albemarle Co. has a 52 week low of $71.97 and a 52 week high of $164.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 2.67.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.04 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by ($0.49). The business had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.34 billion. Albemarle had a positive return on equity of 6.38% and a negative net margin of 6.72%. Albemarle’s revenue was down 39.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $7.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Albemarle Co. will post 0.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.