Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) Posts Earnings Results, Misses Expectations By $0.09 EPS

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) posted its earnings results on Thursday. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by ($0.09), Briefing.com reports. Albemarle had a return on equity of 14.53% and a net margin of 4.02%. The business had revenue of $1.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.29 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $10.32 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 47.3% on a year-over-year basis.

Albemarle Stock Performance

Shares of ALB stock traded up $2.80 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $128.10. 2,600,059 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,691,240. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $123.26 and a 200 day simple moving average of $126.54. The company has a current ratio of 2.84, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. Albemarle has a 52-week low of $106.69 and a 52-week high of $247.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 1.65.

Albemarle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.25%. Albemarle’s payout ratio is currently 58.18%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on ALB. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Albemarle from $137.00 to $125.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 15th. TD Cowen lowered shares of Albemarle from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $220.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, January 29th. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Albemarle from $112.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Albemarle from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered shares of Albemarle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $155.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Albemarle presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $175.85.

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.