Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) Research Coverage Started at Clarkson Capital

Clarkson Capital began coverage on shares of Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) in a research note released on Tuesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The firm issued a buy rating and a $112.00 price target on the specialty chemicals company’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also weighed in on ALB. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Albemarle from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. KeyCorp reduced their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $132.00 to $127.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Albemarle from $79.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Oppenheimer reduced their price target on shares of Albemarle from $171.00 to $170.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Mizuho lowered their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Albemarle has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $115.65.

Albemarle Price Performance

Shares of Albemarle stock opened at $94.30 on Tuesday. Albemarle has a 52 week low of $71.97 and a 52 week high of $143.19. The company has a current ratio of 2.44, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The stock has a market cap of $11.08 billion, a PE ratio of -5.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 1.58. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $98.38 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $93.88.

Albemarle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th were given a $0.405 dividend. This represents a $1.62 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. Albemarle’s dividend payout ratio is -9.67%.

Insider Transactions at Albemarle

In related news, CEO J Kent Masters sold 2,525 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.12, for a total value of $255,328.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 73,747 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,457,296.64. This represents a 3.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.38% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Albemarle

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Primecap Management Co. CA increased its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 3,833,984 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $363,117,000 after acquiring an additional 20,930 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Albemarle by 0.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,741,906 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $258,797,000 after purchasing an additional 14,874 shares during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Albemarle by 10.2% in the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 1,568,602 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $149,833,000 after purchasing an additional 144,705 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Albemarle by 2.3% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,311,331 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $125,264,000 after buying an additional 29,721 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Earnest Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 11.9% during the 2nd quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 1,198,730 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $114,503,000 after buying an additional 127,615 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

About Albemarle

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.