Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) has earned an average rating of “Hold” from the twenty-three analysts that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, fifteen have given a hold recommendation and seven have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $117.60.

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Albemarle to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Oppenheimer cut their price target on shares of Albemarle from $188.00 to $178.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. KeyCorp reduced their price target on shares of Albemarle from $151.00 to $132.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $105.00 to $80.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Albemarle from $115.00 to $78.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 19th.

Institutional Trading of Albemarle

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Czech National Bank boosted its stake in Albemarle by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 20,648 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $2,720,000 after acquiring an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC grew its stake in Albemarle by 45.0% in the first quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC now owns 332 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares in the last quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC grew its stake in Albemarle by 4.6% in the first quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 2,655 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $350,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. Foster Group Inc. increased its holdings in Albemarle by 4.1% in the second quarter. Foster Group Inc. now owns 3,047 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $291,000 after buying an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in Albemarle by 3.3% during the first quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 4,309 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $568,000 after buying an additional 137 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

Albemarle Trading Down 3.7 %

Shares of ALB stock opened at $94.63 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $89.32 and its 200-day simple moving average is $103.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 2.67 and a quick ratio of 1.75. Albemarle has a 1-year low of $71.97 and a 1-year high of $164.06. The firm has a market cap of $11.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.41, a PEG ratio of 13.81 and a beta of 1.54.

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