Huntington National Bank Buys 769 Shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB)

Huntington National Bank grew its stake in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) by 95.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,571 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after acquiring an additional 769 shares during the quarter. Huntington National Bank’s holdings in Albemarle were worth $135,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of ALB. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Albemarle by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,594,499 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $1,256,294,000 after purchasing an additional 359,014 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Albemarle by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,795,891 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $240,044,000 after buying an additional 53,985 shares during the period. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA lifted its holdings in Albemarle by 36.7% during the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 1,192,527 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $102,653,000 after acquiring an additional 320,150 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Albemarle by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,040,970 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $89,607,000 after acquiring an additional 20,380 shares during the period. Finally, Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Albemarle in the fourth quarter worth about $85,570,000. 92.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on Albemarle from $96.00 to $85.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $133.00 to $114.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $99.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Albemarle from $73.00 to $68.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their price target on Albemarle from $90.00 to $85.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Albemarle has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $104.30.

Albemarle Trading Down 12.0 %

Shares of NYSE:ALB opened at $58.55 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $77.46 and a 200 day simple moving average of $90.15. The company has a market capitalization of $6.89 billion, a P/E ratio of -5.23 and a beta of 1.59. 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 52-week low of $57.53 and a 52-week high of $137.50.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The specialty chemicals company reported ($1.09) earnings per share (EPS) 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%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Albemarle Co. will post -0.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Albemarle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a dividend of $0.405 per share. This represents a $1.62 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Albemarle’s payout ratio is -14.46%.

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.