Russell Investments Group Ltd. Has $20.51 Million Stock Holdings in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. decreased its holdings in shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) by 28.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 92,223 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 36,949 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned approximately 0.08% of Albemarle worth $20,513,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 124,405.7% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 104,510,053 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $22,664,050,000 after purchasing an additional 104,426,113 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 0.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,661,001 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $3,021,130,000 after purchasing an additional 75,867 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 2.8% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 9,582,008 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $2,118,007,000 after purchasing an additional 260,087 shares during the last quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich raised its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 93,459.7% in the second quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 8,086,363 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,803,987,000 after purchasing an additional 8,077,720 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 0.3% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,364,655 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,188,408,000 after purchasing an additional 16,968 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on ALB. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Albemarle from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 7th. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $295.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 8th. UBS Group downgraded shares of Albemarle from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $253.00 to $140.00 in a report on Monday, November 6th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $265.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 4th. Finally, Bank of America downgraded shares of Albemarle from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $212.00 to $161.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 18th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Albemarle presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $228.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at Albemarle

In related news, EVP Kristin M. Coleman bought 1,373 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 7th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $121.86 per share, for a total transaction of $167,313.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 2,746 shares in the company, valued at approximately $334,627.56. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.38% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Albemarle Price Performance

ALB stock opened at $130.36 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $149.59 and a 200-day moving average of $188.04. The company has a current ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. Albemarle Co. has a 12 month low of $112.00 and a 12 month high of $293.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.52 and a beta of 1.67.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 2nd. The specialty chemicals company reported $2.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.70 by ($0.96). Albemarle had a net margin of 33.63% and a return on equity of 36.09%. The company had revenue of $2.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.52 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $7.50 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Albemarle Co. will post 21.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Albemarle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 15th will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 14th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.23%. Albemarle’s payout ratio is presently 5.67%.

About Albemarle

Albemarle Corporation develops, manufactures, and markets engineered specialty chemicals worldwide. It operates through three segments: Lithium, Bromine, and Catalysts. The Lithium segment offers lithium compounds, including lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide, lithium chloride, and lithium specialties and reagents, such as butyllithium and lithium aluminum hydride for use in lithium batteries for consumer electronics and electric vehicles, high performance greases, thermoplastic elastomers for car tires, rubber soles, plastic bottles, catalysts for chemical reactions, organic synthesis processes in the areas of steroid chemistry and vitamins, life sciences, pharmaceutical industry, and other markets.