Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN) Raises Dividend to $0.27 Per Share

Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, December 6th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be paid a dividend of 0.27 per share by the textile maker on Wednesday, January 8th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.35%. This is a boost from Albany International’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26.

Albany International has increased its dividend payment by an average of 9.5% annually over the last three years. Albany International has a dividend payout ratio of 27.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Albany International to earn $3.85 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.04 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 27.0%.

Albany International Stock Performance

Shares of AIN traded down $0.33 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $80.08. The stock had a trading volume of 279,848 shares, compared to its average volume of 170,308. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 3.68 and a quick ratio of 2.94. Albany International has a 12 month low of $67.39 and a 12 month high of $99.41. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.51 billion, a PE ratio of 25.22 and a beta of 1.34. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $78.22 and a 200 day moving average price of $84.23.

Albany International (NYSE:AIN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The textile maker reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.35. The company had revenue of $298.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $304.51 million. Albany International had a return on equity of 12.20% and a net margin of 7.92%. Albany International’s quarterly revenue was up 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.02 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Albany International will post 3.23 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Bank of America lowered their price objective on Albany International from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on Albany International from $91.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 1st. StockNews.com downgraded Albany International from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their price objective on Albany International from $95.00 to $81.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Albany International presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $85.50.

Insider Transactions at Albany International

In related news, VP Joseph M. Gaug acquired 1,000 shares of Albany International stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $71.24 per share, with a total value of $71,240.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the vice president now directly owns 6,811 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $485,215.64. The trade was a 17.21 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Gunnar Kleveland acquired 1,400 shares of Albany International stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $71.25 per share, for a total transaction of $99,750.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 8,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $590,235. The trade was a 20.34 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have bought 3,450 shares of company stock valued at $245,813. 0.76% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.