MONECO Advisors LLC Buys 496 Shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB)

MONECO Advisors LLC grew its stake in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) by 10.7% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 5,140 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after acquiring an additional 496 shares during the period. MONECO Advisors LLC’s holdings in Albemarle were worth $491,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its holdings 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 valued at $5,138,000 after purchasing an additional 37,958 shares during the last quarter. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA raised its stake in Albemarle by 430.7% in the fourth quarter. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA now owns 43,119 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $6,230,000 after buying an additional 34,994 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Albemarle by 22.5% during the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 190,526 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $25,100,000 after acquiring an additional 35,003 shares during the last quarter. Integrated Advisors Network LLC increased its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 10.2% during the fourth quarter. Integrated Advisors Network LLC now owns 5,063 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $731,000 after acquiring an additional 470 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Commerce Bank increased its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 10,667 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,541,000 after acquiring an additional 525 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ALB. KeyCorp reduced their target price on Albemarle from $151.00 to $132.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Baird R W lowered Albemarle from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. HSBC cut shares of Albemarle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $95.00 target price for the company. in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Scotiabank lowered their price target on shares of Albemarle from $135.00 to $85.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $128.00 to $111.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Albemarle presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $122.60.

Albemarle Price Performance

ALB traded up $2.93 on Monday, hitting $82.30. 886,829 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,117,329. The business’s fifty day moving average is $93.59 and its 200 day moving average is $112.55. Albemarle Co. has a fifty-two week low of $71.97 and a fifty-two week high of $203.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 1.91 and a current ratio of 2.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.48 and a beta of 1.57.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.53 by ($0.49). The business had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.34 billion. Albemarle had a positive return on equity of 6.38% and a negative net margin of 6.72%. Albemarle’s quarterly revenue was down 39.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $7.33 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Albemarle Co. will post 1.67 EPS for the current year.

Albemarle Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be paid a $0.405 dividend. This is a boost from Albemarle’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.62 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th. Albemarle’s payout ratio is presently 58.91%.

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.