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

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

Albemarle has increased its dividend payment by an average of 1.1% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 30 years. Albemarle has a payout ratio of 77.9% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings tumble. 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 Trading Up 1.9 %

Shares of Albemarle stock opened at $78.97 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $85.72 and a two-hundred day moving average of $92.01. The stock has a market cap of $9.28 billion, a PE ratio of -7.05 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 has a 12-month low of $71.97 and a 12-month high of $143.19.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The specialty chemicals company reported ($1.09) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.60) by ($0.49). Albemarle had a negative return on equity of 1.72% and a negative net margin of 21.93%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Albemarle will post -0.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on ALB. KeyCorp reduced their target price on shares of Albemarle from $127.00 to $122.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Oppenheimer reduced their price target on Albemarle from $171.00 to $170.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 8th. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on Albemarle from $90.00 to $85.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Evercore ISI cut Albemarle from an “outperform” rating to an “inline” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Clarkson Capital assumed coverage on shares of Albemarle in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $112.00 price target for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Albemarle currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $109.68.

Insider Activity at Albemarle

In related news, CEO J Kent Masters sold 2,525 shares of Albemarle stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 5th. The stock was 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. This trade represents a 3.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.38% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.