According to Bloomberg Ratings, the twenty-four research firms that pay attention to Albemarle Company (NYSE: ALB) have assigned the stock an average rating of “Hold” to the company’s shares.
This rating was given to the stock after the research firms considered the company’s prospects.
The stock has been assigned a rating of “buy” by nine research experts, “hold” by nine, and “sell” by two, according to the recommendations of the two research experts who have issued a recommendation to sell the stock.
The average price objective that brokerages set over the previous year are $307.78, which applies to the period spanning the next twelve months.
Albemarle (NYSE: ALB) disseminated the findings of its most recent quarterly financial report on Thursday, February 16th, making the announcement.
Earnings per share for the most recent quarter were announced to be $8.62 for the company that specializes in producing specialty chemicals.
This figure is $0.16 higher than industry analysts’ consensus estimate of $8.46 per share.
The company was expected to bring in $2.60 billion in revenue for the quarter, but it brought in $2.62 billion, a significant increase from the forecasted amount.
Albemarle experienced a return on equity of 37.63 percent, and the net margin for the company was 36.75 percent.
Compared to last year’s period, Albemarle’s revenue expansion during the third quarter was 193.1% higher.
Profits per share for the company totaled $1.01 and were generated in the prior year’s comparable quarter.
This year, Albemarle is anticipated to have earnings of 30.2 cents per share, according to industry analysts’ projections.
When trading started on Thursday, the price of an individual share of ALB was $214.40. Given that the company has a market value of $25.13 billion, a PE ratio of 9.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.47, and a beta value of 1.57, it makes for an excellent investment.
In addition, the ratio of the growth in prices to the growth in earnings is 0.47.
The company’s moving averages for the past fifty days are currently at $254.69, and the moving averages for the past two hundred days are currently at $263.66.
Albemarle has seen prices as low as $185.15 and as high as $334.55 during its 52-week trading range.
The price range is shown here.
The debt-to-equity ratio stands at 0.39, the quick ratio at 1.13, and the current ratio at 1.89.
In recent press releases, several equity analysts were asked about their thoughts on the ALB stock, and they provided their responses.
The stock of Albemarle Corporation was added to StockNews.com’s coverage on Thursday as part of the company’s expansion.
The analysts have advised investors to “hold” onto their shares for now.
In research released on January 25th, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Albemarle from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price from $290.00 to $305.00.
Additionally, they raised their target price on the stock from $290.00 to $305.00.
Piper Sandler upgraded the stock’s rating to “overweight” and raised their price target on Albemarle shares from $310.00 to $330.00 in a research note published on February 21st.
Both of these alterations were carried out.
In a research report made available to the public on January 25th, Robert W.
Baird rated the stock of Albemarle as “neutral.” He increased their price objective on the company’s shares from $298.00 to $305.00.
The price objective had previously been set at $298.00.
The stock was the subject of the study.
BMO Capital Markets upgraded their rating on Albemarle stock to “outperform” in a research report made public on Friday, February 17th.
Additionally, BMO Capital Markets increased its price objective on the stock from $315.00 to $325.00.
These modifications were all included as part of a larger increase in the price target.
In addition, the business just recently announced the payment of a quarterly dividend, scheduled for Monday, April 3rd. On Friday, March 17th, $0.40 dividend payments per share will be made to shareholders recorded in the company’s books.
The previous increment of $0.40 that Albemarle gave out every quarter has now been increased to that amount.
This equates to a dividend payment of $1.60 per year when calculated annually and a dividend yield of 0.75 percent.
The dividend will be withheld from shareholder accounts beginning Thursday, March 16th. Currently, the payout ratio for Albemarle is at its current level of 7.01%.
On Friday, March 3rd, Chief Financial Officer Scott Tozier sold 5,700 shares of company stock, which brings us to another piece of information concerning the company’s operations.
The price of each share was purchased at an average of $251.40 throughout the sale, which resulted in the total value of the transaction being $1,432,980.00.
Because of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 69,503 shares of the company.
Based on the current market price, these shares are worth approximately $17,473,054.20.
The Securities and Exchange Commission was given legal documents about the transaction, which were subsequently uploaded to the SEC website after being provided to the SEC.
Insiders in the company have sold 7,836 shares over the last three months, resulting in a total profit of $1,917,699 for their efforts. Currently, company insiders own 0.25% of the total outstanding stock.