Albany International (NYSE:AIN) Upgraded at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Albany International (NYSE:AIN) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Thursday.

AIN has been the topic of a number of other reports. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of Albany International from $85.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Albany International from $75.00 to $74.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. TD Cowen upgraded Albany International to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Bank of America dropped their price objective on Albany International from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $80.75.

Albany International Stock Up 0.1 %

Albany International stock opened at $80.90 on Thursday. Albany International has a twelve month low of $67.39 and a twelve month high of $98.73. The stock has a market cap of $2.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.28 and a beta of 1.35. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $81.39 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $83.03. 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 (NYSE:AIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The textile maker reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.35. The business had revenue of $298.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $304.51 million. Albany International had a return on equity of 12.20% and a net margin of 7.92%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.02 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Albany International 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. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. This is a positive change from Albany International’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.33%. Albany International’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 33.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Albany International

In other Albany International news, CEO Gunnar Kleveland bought 1,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $71.25 per share, for a total transaction of $99,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 8,284 shares in the company, valued at approximately $590,235. The trade was a 20.34 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, VP Joseph M. Gaug bought 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $71.24 per share, with a total value of $71,240.00. Following the acquisition, the vice president now directly owns 6,811 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $485,215.64. The trade was a 17.21 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders bought a total of 3,450 shares of company stock worth $245,813 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.76% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Albany International

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Albany International by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,218,058 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $108,544,000 after acquiring an additional 36,944 shares in the last quarter. MQS Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Albany International during the third quarter worth about $800,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of Albany International by 14.0% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 80,618 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $7,163,000 after buying an additional 9,931 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Albany International by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 239,697 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $21,297,000 after buying an additional 12,262 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in Albany International by 6.6% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 586,268 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $52,071,000 after buying an additional 36,274 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 97.37% of the company’s stock.

About Albany International

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.