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

Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, October 28th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a dividend of 0.405 per share by the specialty chemicals company on Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $1.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.56%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th.

Albemarle has raised its dividend payment by an average of 1.3% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 30 consecutive years. Albemarle has a payout ratio of 178.0% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Equities research analysts expect Albemarle to earn $1.85 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 87.6%.

Albemarle Stock Down 5.2 %

ALB opened at $103.98 on Wednesday. Albemarle has a 12 month low of $71.97 and a 12 month high of $153.54. The company has a current ratio of 2.44, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $101.74 and its 200-day moving average price is $97.13. The company has a market cap of $12.22 billion, a P/E ratio of -6.21 and a beta of 1.56.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on ALB. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price objective on Albemarle from $105.00 to $80.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on Albemarle from $190.00 to $170.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Oppenheimer reduced their price target on Albemarle from $171.00 to $170.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Albemarle from $108.00 to $133.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $114.47.

Insider Buying and Selling at Albemarle

In other news, CEO J Kent Masters sold 2,525 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.12, for a total value of $255,328.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 73,747 shares in the company, valued at $7,457,296.64. This represents a 3.31 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate 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.