Albemarle - ALB Stock Forecast, Price & News

Albemarle Corporation develops, manufactures, and markets engineered specialty chemicals worldwide. It operates through three segments: Lithium, Bromine, and Catalysts. The Lithium segment offers lithium compounds, including lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide, lithium chloride, and lithium specialties; and reagents, such as butyllithium and lithium aluminum hydride for use in lithium batteries for consumer electronics and electric vehicles, high performance greases, thermoplastic elastomers for car tires, rubber soles, plastic bottles, catalysts for chemical reactions, organic synthesis processes in the areas of steroid chemistry and vitamins, life sciences, pharmaceutical industry, and other markets. It also provides cesium products for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries; zirconium, barium, and titanium products for pyrotechnical applications that include airbag initiators; technical services for the handling and use of reactive lithium products; and lithium-containing by-products recycling services. The Bromine segment offers bromine and bromine-based fire safety solutions; specialty chemicals, including elemental bromine, alkyl and inorganic bromides, brominated powdered activated carbon, and other bromine fine chemicals for use in chemical synthesis, oil and gas well drilling and completion fluids, mercury control, water purification, beef and poultry processing, and other industrial applications; and other specialty chemicals, such as tertiary amines for surfactants, biocides, and disinfectants and sanitizers. The Catalysts segment provides hydroprocessing, isomerization, and akylation catalysts; fluidized catalytic cracking catalysts and additives; and organometallics and curatives. The company serves the energy storage, petroleum refining, consumer electronics, construction, automotive, lubricants, pharmaceuticals, and crop protection markets. Albemarle Corporation was founded in 1887 and is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Albemarle Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of ALB Stock opened at $279.51 on Friday. Albemarle has a 1-year low of $169.93 and a 1-year high of $291.48. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $226.73 and its 200 day moving average price is $219.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 1.88 and a quick ratio of 1.20. The company has a market cap of $32.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 125.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 1.58.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB - Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 3rd. The specialty chemicals company reported $3.45 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.79 by $0.66. Albemarle had a return on equity of 15.39% and a net margin of 6.08%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.89 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Albemarle will post 21.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Albemarle Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.395 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 15th. This represents a $1.58 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.57%. Albemarle's payout ratio is presently 71.17%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on ALB shares. TheStreet raised Albemarle from a "c+" rating to a "b" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 4th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Albemarle from $300.00 to $314.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 24th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $290.00 target price on shares of Albemarle in a research report on Monday, May 16th. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Albemarle from $368.00 to $440.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, August 8th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on Albemarle to $294.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Albemarle has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $279.05.