Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN) Shares Sold by Rice Hall James & Associates LLC

Rice Hall James & Associates LLC reduced its position in Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN) by 0.9% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 50,478 shares of the textile maker’s stock after selling 434 shares during the period. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC’s holdings in Albany International were worth $4,037,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Creative Planning boosted its holdings in Albany International by 18.4% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 5,941 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $528,000 after purchasing an additional 923 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. raised its position in shares of Albany International by 20.2% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,245 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $274,000 after purchasing an additional 545 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in shares of Albany International by 60.5% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 161,340 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $14,335,000 after buying an additional 60,812 shares during the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Albany International by 16.4% during the 3rd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,025 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $358,000 after buying an additional 567 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Albany International by 6.6% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 586,268 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $52,071,000 after buying an additional 36,274 shares in the last quarter. 97.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on AIN. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Albany International to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Bank of America cut their target price on shares of Albany International from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Truist Financial lifted their price target on Albany International from $85.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. StockNews.com upgraded Albany International from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Albany International from $75.00 to $74.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $80.75.

Albany International Price Performance

AIN opened at $80.88 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.94, a current ratio of 3.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $80.67 and its 200 day moving average price is $81.90. Albany International Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $67.39 and a fifty-two week high of $98.73. The firm has a market cap of $2.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.27 and a beta of 1.34.

Albany International Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th were issued a $0.27 dividend. This is an increase from Albany International’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.34%. Albany International’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 33.75%.

About Albany International

Albany International Corp., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the machine clothing and engineered composites businesses. The company operates in two segments, Machine Clothing (MC) and Albany Engineered Composites (AEC). The MC segment designs, manufactures, and markets paper machine clothing for use in the manufacturing of papers, paperboards, tissues, towels, pulps, nonwovens, building products, tannery, and textiles, as well as fiber cement and several other industrial applications.