Albemarle Co. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.41 (NYSE:ALB)

Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 27th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.405 per share by the specialty chemicals company on Tuesday, April 1st. This represents a $1.62 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.05%.

Albemarle has increased its dividend by an average of 1.1% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 30 consecutive years. Albemarle has a dividend payout ratio of 77.9% meaning its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings decline. Equities research analysts expect Albemarle to earn $1.91 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.62 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 84.8%.

Albemarle Price Performance

Shares of ALB opened at $78.97 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.28 billion, a PE ratio of -7.05 and a beta of 1.59. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $85.72 and a 200 day simple moving average of $92.01. Albemarle has a 52-week low of $71.97 and a 52-week high of $143.19.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last released its earnings results 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 return on equity of 1.72% and a negative net margin of 21.93%. Sell-side analysts predict that Albemarle will post -0.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ALB has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on Albemarle from $127.00 to $122.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Albemarle from $115.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Oppenheimer decreased their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $171.00 to $170.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on shares of Albemarle from $133.00 to $114.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, Truist Financial reduced their price target on Albemarle from $96.00 to $85.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 14th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Albemarle presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $109.68.

Insider Transactions at Albemarle

In other Albemarle 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 sale, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 0.38% of the company’s stock.

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.