Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) Stake Lifted by John G Ullman & Associates Inc.

John G Ullman & Associates Inc. increased its stake in shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) by 84.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 14,925 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after buying an additional 6,850 shares during the quarter. John G Ullman & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Albemarle were worth $1,966,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. MONECO Advisors LLC grew its stake in Albemarle by 6.8% during the 4th quarter. MONECO Advisors LLC now owns 4,131 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $597,000 after buying an additional 263 shares during the last quarter. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA grew its stake in shares of Albemarle by 430.7% in the fourth quarter. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA now owns 43,119 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $6,230,000 after purchasing an additional 34,994 shares in the last quarter. Integrated Advisors Network LLC grew its stake in shares of Albemarle by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. Integrated Advisors Network LLC now owns 5,063 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $731,000 after purchasing an additional 470 shares in the last quarter. Commerce Bank grew its stake in shares of Albemarle by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 10,667 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $1,541,000 after purchasing an additional 525 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Albemarle by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 23,874 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $3,449,000 after purchasing an additional 756 shares in the last quarter. 92.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ALB has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group decreased their price target on Albemarle from $124.00 to $109.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. KeyCorp decreased their target price on Albemarle from $159.00 to $151.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Oppenheimer decreased their target price on Albemarle from $188.00 to $178.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on Albemarle from $125.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut Albemarle from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $145.00 to $100.00 in a research note on Thursday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $150.16.

Albemarle Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of ALB traded up $1.05 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $97.95. 2,702,978 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,100,103. Albemarle Co. has a 12-month low of $90.32 and a 12-month high of $246.71. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $113.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $120.68. The company has a quick ratio of 1.91, a current ratio of 2.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The company has a market cap of $11.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.62, a P/E/G ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 1.57.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.26 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by ($0.09). The company had revenue of $1.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.29 billion. Albemarle had a net margin of 4.02% and a return on equity of 14.53%. The business’s revenue was down 47.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $10.32 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Albemarle Co. will post 2.07 EPS for the current year.

Albemarle Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th were issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 14th. Albemarle’s dividend payout ratio is 58.18%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO John Clarence Barichivich III sold 1,475 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.17, for a total transaction of $194,950.75. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,743 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $626,882.31. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Albemarle news, CAO John Clarence Barichivich III sold 1,475 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.17, for a total value of $194,950.75. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,743 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $626,882.31. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Mark Richard Mummert sold 843 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.53, for a total value of $114,251.79. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 6,802 shares in the company, valued at approximately $921,875.06. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.38% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.