Albany International (NYSE:AIN) Downgraded by Baird R W to Hold

Key Points

• Albany International's stock has been downgraded by Baird R W from a "strong-buy" to a "hold" rating, reflecting increased caution among analysts.
• Multiple analysts have reduced their price targets for Albany International, with Bank of America lowering theirs from $75.00 to $65.00, while JPMorgan Chase raised theirs from $65.00 to $77.00.
• In its latest earnings report, Albany International missed consensus estimates with a reported earnings per share of $0.57, down from $0.89 compared to the same quarter last year.

Baird R W lowered shares of Albany International (NYSE:AIN - Free Report) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a report released on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on AIN. Wall Street Zen upgraded Albany International from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Truist Financial cut their price objective on Albany International from $88.00 to $80.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Bank of America lowered their target price on Albany International from $75.00 to $65.00 and set an "underperform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Albany International from $65.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, May 16th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered Albany International from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $79.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Albany International has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $71.40.

Albany International Price Performance

AIN stock traded up $1.79 during trading on Thursday, hitting $55.98. The company had a trading volume of 821,396 shares, compared to its average volume of 264,880. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $68.58 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $70.88. The company has a current ratio of 3.51, a quick ratio of 2.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. Albany International has a fifty-two week low of $50.60 and a fifty-two week high of $94.20. The company has a market cap of $1.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.99, a P/E/G ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.38.

Albany International (NYSE:AIN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The textile maker reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.73 by ($0.16). Albany International had a return on equity of 8.87% and a net margin of 5.25%. The firm had revenue of $311.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $306.06 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.89 EPS. The company's revenue was down 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Albany International will post 3.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Albany International Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 8th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 6th were paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 6th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. Albany International's payout ratio is 54.00%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Albany International

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Albany International by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,493,846 shares of the textile maker's stock valued at $279,403,000 after purchasing an additional 12,687 shares during the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC boosted its stake in Albany International by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 2,641,108 shares of the textile maker's stock valued at $211,209,000 after purchasing an additional 99,149 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in shares of Albany International by 3,050.6% in the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,363,946 shares of the textile maker's stock worth $109,075,000 after buying an additional 1,320,654 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Albany International by 45.3% in the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,233,925 shares of the textile maker's stock worth $85,190,000 after buying an additional 384,546 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Albany International by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,103,121 shares of the textile maker's stock worth $88,217,000 after buying an additional 9,226 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.37% of the company's stock.

Albany International Company 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.