Albemarle Corporation $ALB Shares Purchased by Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC

Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC grew its position in shares of Albemarle Corporation (NYSE:ALB) by 6.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 835,806 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after acquiring an additional 47,200 shares during the quarter. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC owned about 0.71% of Albemarle worth $52,380,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its position in Albemarle by 48.5% in the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 2,870,110 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $179,870,000 after purchasing an additional 937,538 shares during the period. FengHe Fund Management Pte. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Albemarle during the second quarter valued at approximately $32,903,000. PGGM Investments lifted its position in shares of Albemarle by 90.4% during the second quarter. PGGM Investments now owns 1,069,924 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $67,052,000 after purchasing an additional 507,975 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Albemarle in the first quarter valued at $26,836,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Albemarle by 28.7% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,538,706 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $110,814,000 after purchasing an additional 343,210 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ALB has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $60.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 18th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Albemarle from $85.00 to $107.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 13th. Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and set a $100.00 price objective (up from $95.00) on shares of Albemarle in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Albemarle from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Rothschild Redb upgraded shares of Albemarle to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $101.29.

Albemarle Price Performance

ALB opened at $126.86 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $14.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.61 and a beta of 1.70. Albemarle Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $49.43 and a fifty-two week high of $127.70. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $98.78 and its 200 day moving average price is $79.99. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 2.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The specialty chemicals company reported ($0.19) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.92) by $0.73. Albemarle had a negative return on equity of 1.87% and a negative net margin of 18.61%.The company had revenue of $1.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.27 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($1.55) earnings per share. Albemarle’s quarterly revenue was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Albemarle Corporation will post -0.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Albemarle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.405 per share. This represents a $1.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 12th. Albemarle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -101.89%.

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.