Albemarle Co. (ALB) to Distribute Quarterly Dividend of $0.41 on January 2nd

Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, October 28th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a dividend of 0.405 per share by the specialty chemicals company on Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $1.62 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.68%.

Albemarle has raised its dividend payment by an average of 1.3% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 30 years. Albemarle has a dividend payout ratio of 77.1% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings decline. Equities analysts expect Albemarle to earn $3.05 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.62 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 53.1%.

Albemarle Stock Performance

Shares of Albemarle stock opened at $96.65 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.36 billion, a P/E ratio of -20.43, a P/E/G ratio of 13.81 and a beta of 1.54. Albemarle has a fifty-two week low of $71.97 and a fifty-two week high of $153.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 2.67 and a quick ratio of 1.75. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $91.90 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $101.18.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.04 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.53 by ($0.49). The business had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.34 billion. Albemarle had a positive return on equity of 6.38% and a negative net margin of 6.72%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 39.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $7.33 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Albemarle will post 0.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ALB. Berenberg Bank lowered Albemarle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $160.00 to $83.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Albemarle to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on shares of Albemarle from $128.00 to $111.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. HSBC lowered Albemarle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $95.00 target price for the company. in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $190.00 to $170.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $117.30.

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.