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 Performance

Albemarle stock traded up $3.10 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $237.99. 1,427,951 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,016,054. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $224.06 and a 200 day moving average price of $215.76. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 1.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The company has a market cap of $27.88 billion, a PE ratio of 107.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.45 and a beta of 1.58. Albemarle has a one year low of $169.93 and a one year high of $291.48.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB - Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 3rd. The specialty chemicals company reported $3.45 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates 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 period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.89 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Albemarle will post 20.75 EPS for the current year.

Albemarle Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 16th will be paid a $0.395 dividend. This represents a $1.58 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 15th. Albemarle's dividend payout ratio is presently 71.17%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on ALB shares. KeyCorp upgraded Albemarle from an "underweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 20th. TheStreet upgraded Albemarle from a "c+" rating to a "b" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 4th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Albemarle from $300.00 to $314.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 24th. StockNews.com upgraded Albemarle from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 26th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Albemarle from $307.00 to $368.00 in a research report on Friday, May 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Albemarle presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $273.95.