Moody Aldrich Partners LLC Decreases Stake in Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN)

Moody Aldrich Partners LLC lowered its holdings in Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN) by 2.9% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 38,497 shares of the textile maker’s stock after selling 1,166 shares during the period. Moody Aldrich Partners LLC’s holdings in Albany International were worth $3,079,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Quarry LP raised its stake in shares of Albany International by 515.4% in the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 480 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 402 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Albany International by 33.4% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 899 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $80,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV raised its stake in shares of Albany International by 28.9% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,058 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $94,000 after purchasing an additional 237 shares during the last quarter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division raised its stake in shares of Albany International by 40.3% in the third quarter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division now owns 1,985 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $176,000 after purchasing an additional 570 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bridges Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Albany International in the third quarter worth $206,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.37% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Robert Alan Hansen purchased 1,050 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $71.26 per share, with a total value of $74,823.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,387 shares in the company, valued at $597,657.62. This represents a 14.31 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Gunnar Kleveland purchased 1,400 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 8,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $590,235. The trade was a 20.34 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have bought 3,450 shares of company stock worth $245,813 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.76% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Truist Financial upped their price objective on Albany International from $85.00 to $88.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Albany International from $75.00 to $74.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Bank of America reduced their price target on Albany International from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 15th. StockNews.com upgraded Albany International from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded Albany International to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $80.75.

Albany International Stock Performance

Shares of AIN stock opened at $80.19 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $2.51 billion, a PE ratio of 25.06 and a beta of 1.35. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $81.32 and a 200-day simple moving average of $82.95. The company has a quick ratio of 2.94, a current ratio of 3.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. Albany International Corp. has a 52-week low of $67.39 and a 52-week high of $98.73.

Albany International (NYSE:AIN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The textile maker reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.35. Albany International had a return on equity of 12.20% and a net margin of 7.92%. The company had revenue of $298.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $304.51 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.02 EPS. Albany International’s quarterly revenue was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Albany International Corp. will post 3.24 EPS for the current year.

Albany International Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.35%. This is a boost from Albany International’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. Albany International’s dividend payout ratio is 33.75%.

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.