Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Increases Position in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB)

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. grew its position in shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) by 3.3% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 49,836 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,571 shares during the quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in Albemarle were worth $4,290,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Albemarle in the 4th quarter worth approximately $85,570,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 38.2% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,020,590 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $96,660,000 after acquiring an additional 282,194 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 67.3% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 658,145 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $62,333,000 after purchasing an additional 264,756 shares during the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new position in Albemarle in the 4th quarter worth $11,694,000. Finally, Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in Albemarle by 28.5% in the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 423,049 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $40,067,000 after purchasing an additional 93,718 shares during the last quarter. 92.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on ALB. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on Albemarle from $90.00 to $85.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Clarkson Capital initiated coverage on Albemarle in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. They set a “buy” rating and a $112.00 price objective for the company. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on shares of Albemarle from $150.00 to $140.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Evercore ISI cut shares of Albemarle from an “outperform” rating to an “inline” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their target price on shares of Albemarle from $85.00 to $75.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $104.30.

Albemarle Trading Up 0.2 %

NYSE ALB opened at $77.70 on Tuesday. Albemarle Co. has a 12 month low of $67.23 and a 12 month high of $137.50. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $81.43 and its 200-day moving average price is $91.04. The stock has a market cap of $9.13 billion, a P/E ratio of -6.94 and a beta of 1.70.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The specialty chemicals company reported ($1.09) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.60) by ($0.49). Albemarle had a negative net margin of 21.93% and a negative return on equity of 1.72%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Albemarle Co. will post -0.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Albemarle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.405 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.09%. Albemarle’s payout ratio is currently -14.46%.

Albemarle Company Profile

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.