Sagefield Capital LP Cuts Stock Position in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB)

Sagefield Capital LP trimmed its stake in shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) by 23.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 34,076 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 10,522 shares during the period. Sagefield Capital LP’s holdings in Albemarle were worth $3,255,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Assetmark Inc. boosted its holdings in Albemarle by 77.2% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 257 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 112 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Albemarle by 43.5% in the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 515 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $74,000 after acquiring an additional 156 shares in the last quarter. Commerce Bank boosted its stake in shares of Albemarle by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 10,667 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $1,541,000 after acquiring an additional 525 shares during the last quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC increased its position in shares of Albemarle by 10.4% during the fourth quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC now owns 1,714 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $248,000 after purchasing an additional 162 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its stake in Albemarle by 26.0% in the 4th quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 158,926 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $22,946,000 after purchasing an additional 32,748 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on ALB. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Albemarle to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $151.00 to $132.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Scotiabank decreased their target price on shares of Albemarle from $135.00 to $85.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Bank of America cut their price target on Albemarle from $135.00 to $126.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Albemarle from $124.00 to $109.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $117.10.

Albemarle Trading Up 3.1 %

ALB opened at $88.71 on Tuesday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $10.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.26, a PEG ratio of 8.03 and a beta of 1.54. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $86.77 and a 200 day moving average price of $106.39. Albemarle Co. has a 12 month low of $71.97 and a 12 month high of $177.52.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.04 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.53 by ($0.49). Albemarle had a negative net margin of 6.72% and a positive return on equity of 6.38%. The firm had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.34 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $7.33 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 39.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Albemarle Co. will post 0.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Albemarle Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th will be issued a $0.405 dividend. This represents a $1.62 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.83%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. This is a positive change from Albemarle’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Albemarle’s dividend payout ratio is 58.91%.

Albemarle 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.