Rice Hall James & Associates LLC Trims Stock Position in Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN)

Rice Hall James & Associates LLC trimmed its position in Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN) by 1.2% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 50,912 shares of the textile maker’s stock after selling 633 shares during the quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC’s holdings in Albany International were worth $4,524,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd acquired a new stake in Albany International during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $679,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in Albany International by 29.7% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 100,528 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $8,490,000 after purchasing an additional 23,018 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. grew its stake in Albany International by 3.7% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 694,792 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $64,970,000 after purchasing an additional 24,720 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Albany International by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,529,478 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $330,041,000 after purchasing an additional 11,052 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co grew its stake in Albany International by 9.0% during the 1st quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 28,687 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $2,677,000 after purchasing an additional 2,367 shares in the last quarter. 97.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Albany International Price Performance

NYSE AIN opened at $67.86 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 3.59 and a quick ratio of 2.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.12 billion, a PE ratio of 19.39, a P/E/G ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 1.25. Albany International Corp. has a 12 month low of $67.39 and a 12 month high of $99.41. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $82.16 and its 200 day simple moving average is $85.48.

Albany International (NYSE:AIN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The textile maker reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.35. The company had revenue of $298.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $304.51 million. Albany International had a net margin of 8.76% and a return on equity of 13.13%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.02 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Albany International Corp. will post 3.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Albany International Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, October 7th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd were given a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.53%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 3rd. Albany International’s dividend payout ratio is 29.71%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently commented on AIN shares. Truist Financial decreased their target price on Albany International from $101.00 to $91.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. TD Cowen decreased their target price on Albany International from $95.00 to $81.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Albany International from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Albany International has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $89.50.

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.