Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) Declares $0.41 Quarterly Dividend

Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 27th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.405 per share by the specialty chemicals company on Tuesday, April 1st. This represents a $1.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.05%.

Albemarle has increased its dividend payment by an average of 1.1% 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 74.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Albemarle to earn $1.91 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 84.8%.

Albemarle Trading Up 1.9 %

Shares of NYSE ALB traded up $1.44 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $78.97. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,499,296 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,498,125. The stock has a market cap of $9.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.05 and a beta of 1.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.19. Albemarle has a one year low of $71.97 and a one year high of $143.19. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $85.92 and its 200-day simple moving average is $92.10.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The specialty chemicals company reported ($1.09) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.60) by ($0.49). Albemarle had a negative net margin of 21.93% and a negative return on equity of 1.72%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Albemarle will post -0.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Albemarle

In related news, CEO J Kent Masters sold 2,525 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.12, for a total value of $255,328.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 73,747 shares in the company, valued at $7,457,296.64. This trade represents a 3.31 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on ALB. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on shares of Albemarle from $150.00 to $140.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Oppenheimer cut their price target on shares of Albemarle from $171.00 to $170.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 8th. KeyCorp cut their price target on shares of Albemarle from $127.00 to $122.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Piper Sandler cut their price target on shares of Albemarle from $90.00 to $85.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Clarkson Capital initiated coverage on shares of Albemarle in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. They set a “buy” rating and a $112.00 target price on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Albemarle presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $109.68.

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.