Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN) Shares Sold by William Blair Investment Management LLC

William Blair Investment Management LLC cut its position in Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN) by 9.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 647,095 shares of the textile maker’s stock after selling 70,385 shares during the quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Albany International were worth $51,748,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Albany International by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,218,058 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $108,544,000 after purchasing an additional 36,944 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Albany International by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 715,779 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $63,609,000 after purchasing an additional 8,356 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Albany International by 6.6% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 586,268 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $52,071,000 after purchasing an additional 36,274 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Albany International by 7.1% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 426,036 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $34,070,000 after purchasing an additional 28,061 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in Albany International by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 304,875 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $24,381,000 after acquiring an additional 9,091 shares during the period. 97.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Albany International Price Performance

Albany International stock opened at $73.97 on Tuesday. Albany International Corp. has a 1 year low of $67.39 and a 1 year high of $96.49. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $78.91 and a 200 day moving average price of $80.09. The company has a market cap of $2.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.12 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 2.94 and a current ratio of 3.68.

Albany International (NYSE:AIN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The textile maker reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by ($0.05). Albany International had a net margin of 7.92% and a return on equity of 12.20%. The company had revenue of $286.91 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $299.52 million. Sell-side analysts predict that Albany International Corp. will post 3.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Albany International Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 21st. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.46%. Albany International’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.71%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have issued reports on AIN. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Albany International from $85.00 to $88.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of Albany International from $104.00 to $92.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Albany International from $75.00 to $74.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. StockNews.com lowered Albany International from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, TD Cowen raised Albany International to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $83.00.

Albany International Profile

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.