Vanguard Group Inc. Increases Stake in Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN)

Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN) by 0.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 3,493,846 shares of the textile maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 12,687 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 11.16% of Albany International worth $279,403,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AIN. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Albany International by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,218,058 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $108,544,000 after purchasing an additional 36,944 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in Albany International by 3,380.5% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 849,379 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $67,925,000 after buying an additional 824,975 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. lifted its holdings in Albany International by 7.0% during the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 729,377 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $58,328,000 after buying an additional 47,936 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Albany International by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 715,779 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $63,609,000 after acquiring an additional 8,356 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Albany International by 6.6% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 586,268 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $52,071,000 after acquiring an additional 36,274 shares during the period. 97.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Albany International Stock Performance

Shares of Albany International stock opened at $61.58 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.24 and a beta of 1.37. Albany International Corp. has a 52 week low of $60.21 and a 52 week high of $95.47. 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 has a 50 day moving average price of $76.07 and a 200 day moving average price of $78.58.

Albany International (NYSE:AIN) last posted 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). The company had revenue of $286.91 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $299.52 million. Albany International had a return on equity of 12.20% and a net margin of 7.92%. Sell-side analysts expect that Albany International Corp. will post 3.23 EPS for the current year.

Albany International Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 21st will be paid 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 yield of 1.75%. Albany International’s payout ratio is presently 38.71%.

Albany International 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.