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

Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, October 28th, RTT News reports. Investors 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 yield of 1.65%.

Albemarle has increased its dividend by an average of 1.3% 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 77.1% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings decline. Equities analysts expect Albemarle to earn $3.05 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 53.1%.

Albemarle Stock Performance

Shares of ALB stock traded up $4.63 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $98.14. The stock had a trading volume of 2,382,359 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,999,354. Albemarle has a fifty-two week low of $71.97 and a fifty-two week high of $153.54. The firm has a market cap of $11.53 billion, a PE ratio of 34.27, a PEG ratio of 13.81 and a beta of 1.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 2.67 and a quick ratio of 1.75. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $91.35 and its 200-day simple moving average is $101.59.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.04 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.53 by ($0.49). Albemarle had a positive return on equity of 6.38% and a negative net margin of 6.72%. The firm had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.34 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $7.33 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 39.7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Albemarle will post 0.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $95.00 to $90.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $190.00 to $170.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. KeyCorp reduced their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $151.00 to $132.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Baird R W cut shares of Albemarle from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on shares of Albemarle from $128.00 to $111.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $117.30.

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.