Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) Shares Sold by Dover Advisors LLC

Dover Advisors LLC trimmed its position in shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) by 8.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,504 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 483 shares during the period. Dover Advisors LLC’s holdings in Albemarle were worth $399,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Assetmark Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 340.6% during the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 304 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 235 shares during the last quarter. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd purchased a new stake in Albemarle during the 4th quarter worth $34,000. Orion Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Albemarle during the 4th quarter worth $35,000. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. purchased a new stake in Albemarle during the 1st quarter worth $32,000. Finally, Centricity Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Albemarle during the 4th quarter worth $39,000. 92.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on ALB. TD Securities decreased their price target on shares of Albemarle from $115.00 to $65.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Albemarle from $68.00 to $58.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Albemarle from $86.00 to $64.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 7th. KeyCorp decreased their price target on shares of Albemarle from $102.00 to $95.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Albemarle from $80.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $91.62.

Albemarle Stock Performance

Shares of ALB stock opened at $60.65 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.95. Albemarle Co. has a one year low of $49.43 and a one year high of $113.91. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $58.06 and its 200-day simple moving average is $75.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.41 and a beta of 1.61.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The specialty chemicals company reported ($0.18) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.62) by $0.44. Albemarle had a negative net margin of 21.93% and a negative return on equity of 1.72%. The business had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.18 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.26 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 20.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Albemarle Co. will post -0.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Albemarle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Investors of record on Friday, June 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.405 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.62 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.67%. Albemarle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -14.57%.

Albemarle 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.