American Century Companies Inc. Acquires 640 Shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB)

American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) by 2.4% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 27,241 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after purchasing an additional 640 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc.’s holdings in Albemarle were worth $2,602,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Assetmark Inc. boosted its holdings in Albemarle by 77.2% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 257 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 112 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its stake in Albemarle by 26.0% during the fourth quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 158,926 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $22,946,000 after acquiring an additional 32,748 shares in the last quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 447.9% during the fourth quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 15,324 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $2,214,000 after acquiring an additional 12,527 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of Albemarle by 16.9% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 51,949 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $7,506,000 after purchasing an additional 7,514 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Focus Financial Network Inc. ADV bought a new stake in shares of Albemarle in the 4th quarter worth about $214,000. 92.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Albemarle from $137.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 12th. Berenberg Bank downgraded Albemarle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $160.00 to $83.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Mizuho dropped their price target on Albemarle from $128.00 to $103.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Oppenheimer cut their price objective on Albemarle from $188.00 to $178.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Baird R W cut Albemarle from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Albemarle presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $117.10.

Albemarle Trading Up 0.9 %

ALB opened at $96.05 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $86.56 and its two-hundred day moving average is $105.78. The firm has a market cap of $11.29 billion, a PE ratio of 34.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.98 and a beta of 1.54. Albemarle Co. has a twelve month low of $71.97 and a twelve month high of $177.52. 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 issued 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 for 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%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $7.33 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 39.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Albemarle Co. will post 0.69 EPS for the current year.

Albemarle Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be issued a $0.405 dividend. This represents a $1.62 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. This is a boost from Albemarle’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Albemarle’s dividend payout ratio is 58.91%.

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.