Piper Sandler Cuts Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) Price Target to $85.00

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) had its price objective cut by analysts at Piper Sandler from $90.00 to $85.00 in a note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “underweight” rating on the specialty chemicals company’s stock. Piper Sandler’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 1.74% from the stock’s previous close.

ALB has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of Albemarle from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Truist Financial cut their target price on shares of Albemarle from $96.00 to $85.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $73.00 to $68.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Oppenheimer dropped their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $171.00 to $170.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Clarkson Capital started coverage on shares of Albemarle in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. They set a “buy” rating and a $112.00 price objective on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $109.68.

Albemarle Price Performance

ALB stock opened at $83.55 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $87.71 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $92.14. Albemarle has a 12-month low of $71.97 and a 12-month high of $143.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.46, a PEG ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 1.59. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The specialty chemicals company reported ($1.09) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.60) by ($0.49). Albemarle had a negative net margin of 21.93% and a negative return on equity of 1.72%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Albemarle will post 1.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO J Kent Masters sold 2,525 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.12, for a total transaction of $255,328.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 73,747 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,457,296.64. The trade was a 3.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.38% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Quarry LP raised its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 1,400.0% during the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 270 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 252 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 340.6% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 304 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 235 shares during the last quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont raised its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 606.5% during the fourth quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 325 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 279 shares during the last quarter. Eastern Bank purchased a new stake in Albemarle during the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Finally, Cromwell Holdings LLC increased its holdings in Albemarle by 61.9% during the third quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 387 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 148 shares during the last quarter. 92.87% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Albemarle

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.