Albemarle Corporation (NYSE:ALB) Stake Raised by Pacific Heights Asset Management LLC

Pacific Heights Asset Management LLC grew its position in Albemarle Corporation (NYSE:ALB - Free Report) by 7.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 70,000 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock after buying an additional 5,000 shares during the quarter. Pacific Heights Asset Management LLC owned 0.06% of Albemarle worth $5,041,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. IFM Investors Pty Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Albemarle by 10.9% during the first quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 24,945 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $1,797,000 after acquiring an additional 2,446 shares during the last quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Albemarle by 6.7% during the first quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,782 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $272,000 after acquiring an additional 239 shares during the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas acquired a new stake in shares of Albemarle during the first quarter valued at $1,238,000. Revisor Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Albemarle during the first quarter valued at $400,000. Finally, Vontobel Holding Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Albemarle by 14.6% during the first quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 35,109 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $2,529,000 after acquiring an additional 4,474 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.87% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on ALB shares. Piper Sandler set a $68.00 price objective on Albemarle and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. Truist Financial dropped their target price on Albemarle from $85.00 to $65.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Albemarle to a "sell" rating in a report on Monday, May 5th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Albemarle from $86.00 to $64.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 7th. Finally, TD Securities lowered their price target on Albemarle from $115.00 to $65.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Albemarle currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $91.62.

Albemarle Price Performance

ALB stock traded down $1.66 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $65.55. 2,954,798 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,858,514. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $60.20 and a 200 day simple moving average of $70.86. Albemarle Corporation has a one year low of $49.43 and a one year high of $113.91. The company has a market cap of $7.71 billion, a P/E ratio of -5.89 and a beta of 1.63. The company has a current ratio of 2.11, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The specialty chemicals company reported ($0.18) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.62) by $0.44. Albemarle had a negative return on equity of 1.92% and a negative net margin of 22.39%. The business had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.18 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.26 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was down 20.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Albemarle Corporation will post -0.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Albemarle Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th were issued a dividend of $0.405 per share. This represents a $1.62 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 13th. Albemarle's dividend payout ratio is -14.57%.

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.