Albemarle Co. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.40 (NYSE:ALB)

Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, May 7th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th will be given a dividend of 0.40 per share by the specialty chemicals company on Monday, July 1st. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.22%.

Albemarle has raised 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 29 years. Albemarle has a dividend payout ratio of 19.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Albemarle to earn $6.95 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 23.0%.

Albemarle Stock Performance

NYSE ALB traded up $0.77 on Tuesday, reaching $131.55. The stock had a trading volume of 2,395,721 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,202,515. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 2.84 and a quick ratio of 1.91. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $123.45 and a two-hundred day moving average of $125.95. Albemarle has a 1-year low of $106.69 and a 1-year high of $247.44. The company has a market cap of $15.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 1.65.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.26 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by ($0.09). The firm had revenue of $1.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.29 billion. Albemarle had a net margin of 4.02% and a return on equity of 14.53%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 47.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $10.32 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Albemarle will post 2.86 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ALB has been the topic of several analyst reports. Scotiabank reduced their target price on Albemarle from $160.00 to $150.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. TD Cowen cut Albemarle from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $220.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, January 29th. KeyCorp cut their target price on Albemarle from $178.00 to $159.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Bank of America upgraded Albemarle from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $137.00 to $156.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Oppenheimer decreased their price objective on Albemarle from $191.00 to $188.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Albemarle currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $172.05.

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.