Albany International (NYSE:AIN) Shares Gap Down to $96.49

Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN) gapped down prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $96.49, but opened at $94.26. Albany International shares last traded at $93.46, with a volume of 11,603 shares traded.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on AIN shares. StockNews.com raised Albany International from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 19th. Truist Financial boosted their target price on Albany International from $105.00 to $121.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. TheStreet raised shares of Albany International from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 12th. Finally, Bank of America reiterated an “underperform” rating and set a $95.00 price objective (down from $105.00) on shares of Albany International in a research note on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $110.50.

Albany International Price Performance

The company has a 50 day moving average price of $91.82 and a 200 day moving average price of $89.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 3.53 and a quick ratio of 2.85. The firm has a market cap of $2.91 billion, a PE ratio of 27.15, a PEG ratio of 3.67 and a beta of 1.26.

Albany International (NYSE:AIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The textile maker reported $1.22 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.38. The company had revenue of $323.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $298.17 million. Albany International had a return on equity of 13.70% and a net margin of 9.68%. Albany International’s revenue was up 20.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.75 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Albany International Corp. will post 3.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Albany International Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 5th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.12%. Albany International’s payout ratio is currently 29.30%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AIN. Quadrature Capital Ltd increased its stake in shares of Albany International by 21.0% during the fourth quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 6,372 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $626,000 after acquiring an additional 1,108 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Albany International by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,518,426 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $345,580,000 after acquiring an additional 38,446 shares in the last quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP raised its holdings in shares of Albany International by 12.2% in the 4th quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 3,273 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $321,000 after purchasing an additional 355 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio increased its stake in Albany International by 7.9% in the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 41,902 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $4,116,000 after purchasing an additional 3,083 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC lifted its stake in Albany International by 221.7% during the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 49,178 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $4,831,000 after buying an additional 33,890 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.37% of the company’s stock.

About Albany International

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.