Albemarle Corporation (NYSE:ALB) stock was last seen up 0.6% to trade at $129.90, after the chemicals manufacturing company nabbed a price-target hike from Citigroup to $135 from $125.
The brokerage bunch is divided on ALB, with 12 calling it a tepid "hold" or worse, while 11 say "buy" or better. Meanwhile, short sellers are piling on. Short interest rose 16.3% in the last two reporting periods, and the 14.31 million shares sold short now make up 12.1% of the security's available float. It would take shorts nearly a week to buy back their bearish bets, at the stock's average pace of trading.
The security gapped to a March 5, four-year low of $106.69, and is now running into resistance at $140, with a long-term ceiling also stemming from the 140-day moving average despite this move higher. In the last 12 months, Albemarle stock fell 36%.
Over in the options pits, the equity's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 1.89 sits higher than 98% of annual readings. In simpler terms, short-term options traders are overwhelmingly bearish.
It's also worth noting the stock's Schaeffer's Volatility Scorecard (SVS) stands at a high 93 out of 100. This means ALB exceeded option traders' volatility expectations in the past 12 months.
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