Short Interest in Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN) Rises By 11.2%

Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 606,100 shares, a growth of 11.2% from the December 15th total of 545,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 257,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.4 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at Albany International

In other news, CEO Gunnar Kleveland purchased 1,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was bought at an average price of $71.25 per share, with a total value of $99,750.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 8,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $590,235. This represents a 20.34 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Robert Alan Hansen acquired 1,050 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $71.26 per share, for a total transaction of $74,823.00. Following the purchase, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,387 shares in the company, valued at $597,657.62. This trade represents a 14.31 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have purchased 3,450 shares of company stock valued at $245,813. 0.92% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Albany International by 24.0% during the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 847,829 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $75,330,000 after purchasing an additional 163,934 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in Albany International by 60.5% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 161,340 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $14,335,000 after buying an additional 60,812 shares during the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC raised its position in Albany International by 2.1% during the second quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 2,592,787 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $218,961,000 after acquiring an additional 53,743 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Albany International by 5.1% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,091,660 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $92,192,000 after acquiring an additional 52,909 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC grew its position in shares of Albany International by 176.9% in the 2nd quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC now owns 66,900 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $5,650,000 after acquiring an additional 42,740 shares during the period. 97.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on AIN shares. Truist Financial increased their price target on Albany International from $85.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Albany International from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Albany International from $75.00 to $74.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Albany International to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Albany International from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Albany International presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $80.75.

Albany International Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of AIN traded up $0.05 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $81.36. 106,847 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 182,907. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 3.68 and a quick ratio of 2.94. Albany International has a 52 week low of $67.39 and a 52 week high of $98.73. The company has a market cap of $2.55 billion, a PE ratio of 25.42 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $81.40 and a 200 day simple moving average of $83.07.

Albany International (NYSE:AIN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The textile maker reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.35. Albany International had a net margin of 7.92% and a return on equity of 12.20%. The business had revenue of $298.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $304.51 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.02 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Albany International will post 3.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Albany International Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th were issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.33%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. This is a positive change from Albany International’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. Albany International’s dividend payout ratio is presently 33.75%.

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.