Roberts Glore & Co. Inc. IL Sells 203 Shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB)

Roberts Glore & Co. Inc. IL decreased its stake in shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) by 6.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,883 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 203 shares during the period. Roberts Glore & Co. Inc. IL’s holdings in Albemarle were worth $248,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Albemarle by 38.2% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,020,590 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $96,660,000 after purchasing an additional 282,194 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in Albemarle by 71.5% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 14,948 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $1,287,000 after acquiring an additional 6,234 shares during the period. Bristlecone Advisors LLC raised its position in Albemarle by 20.5% in the fourth quarter. Bristlecone Advisors LLC now owns 28,824 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $2,481,000 after acquiring an additional 4,899 shares during the period. Empower Advisory Group LLC raised its position in Albemarle by 28.7% in the third quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC now owns 705,719 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $66,839,000 after acquiring an additional 157,319 shares during the period. Finally, Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position 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 acquiring an additional 93,718 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have weighed in on ALB shares. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Albemarle from $115.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. KeyCorp decreased their price target on shares of Albemarle from $127.00 to $122.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Albemarle from $133.00 to $114.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on shares of Albemarle from $90.00 to $85.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $109.00 to $105.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $107.05.

Albemarle Stock Performance

ALB opened at $75.57 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.75 and a beta of 1.70. The company has a fifty day moving average of $83.92 and a 200 day moving average of $91.91. Albemarle Co. has a fifty-two week low of $67.23 and a fifty-two week high of $137.50. 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 (NYSE:ALB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The specialty chemicals company reported ($1.09) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.60) by ($0.49). Albemarle had a negative return on equity of 1.72% and a negative net margin of 21.93%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Albemarle Co. will post -0.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Albemarle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid 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 dividend yield of 2.14%. Albemarle’s payout ratio is currently -14.46%.

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.