Short Interest in Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN) Expands By 29.8%

Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 593,500 shares, a growth of 29.8% from the February 28th total of 457,100 shares. Approximately 1.9% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 226,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.6 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio acquired a new stake in Albany International during the fourth quarter worth about $40,000. Quarry LP grew its holdings in shares of Albany International by 515.4% during the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 480 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 402 shares in the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Albany International by 306.7% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 667 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $53,000 after purchasing an additional 503 shares during the period. Sterling Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Albany International by 735.6% in the fourth quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 752 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $60,000 after purchasing an additional 662 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vestcor Inc acquired a new position in shares of Albany International in the fourth quarter valued at $70,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AIN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Albany International to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Bank of America cut their price objective on Albany International from $80.00 to $75.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Truist Financial upped their target price on Albany International from $85.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on Albany International from $104.00 to $92.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Albany International from $75.00 to $74.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Albany International presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $82.00.

Albany International Stock Performance

Shares of AIN stock traded up $1.31 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $70.35. The company had a trading volume of 249,211 shares, compared to its average volume of 197,805. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $76.97 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $78.89. Albany International has a one year low of $67.39 and a one year high of $95.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 3.68 and a quick ratio of 2.94. The company has a market capitalization of $2.17 billion, a PE ratio of 21.98 and a beta of 1.37.

Albany International (NYSE:AIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The textile maker reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by ($0.05). Albany International had a net margin of 7.92% and a return on equity of 12.20%. The firm had revenue of $286.91 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $299.52 million. Sell-side analysts forecast that Albany International will post 3.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Albany International Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 21st. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.54%. Albany International’s payout ratio is 38.71%.

Albany International Company Profile

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.