ProShare Advisors LLC Acquires 144,705 Shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB)

ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) by 10.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,568,602 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after purchasing an additional 144,705 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC owned about 1.33% of Albemarle worth $149,833,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ALB. WFA Asset Management Corp bought a new position in shares of Albemarle in the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. First Community Trust NA acquired a new position in Albemarle during the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. CVA Family Office LLC grew its stake in Albemarle by 610.0% in the second quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 284 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 244 shares in the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its position in shares of Albemarle by 2,942.9% during the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 213 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 206 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Financial Corp IN bought a new stake in shares of Albemarle during the 1st quarter worth approximately $32,000. 92.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on ALB shares. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Albemarle from $95.00 to $90.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $190.00 to $170.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Robert W. Baird downgraded shares of Albemarle from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $102.00 to $85.00 in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Citigroup lowered their price target on Albemarle from $137.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Finally, HSBC lowered Albemarle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $95.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Albemarle presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $117.10.

Albemarle Trading Down 3.7 %

Shares of NYSE:ALB opened at $86.03 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $86.91 and its 200 day simple moving average is $106.72. Albemarle Co. has a 1 year low of $71.97 and a 1 year high of $177.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 2.67 and a quick ratio of 1.75. The company has a market capitalization of $10.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.28, a P/E/G ratio of 8.03 and a beta of 1.54.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.53 by ($0.49). The company 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%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 39.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $7.33 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Albemarle Co. will post 0.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Albemarle Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be given a $0.405 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th. This is a boost from Albemarle’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.62 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.88%. 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.