Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Trims Stock Holdings in Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund trimmed its holdings in Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN) by 4.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 18,063 shares of the textile maker’s stock after selling 827 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in Albany International were worth $1,774,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Arizona State Retirement System raised its stake in shares of Albany International by 1.5% during the third quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 8,883 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $766,000 after acquiring an additional 129 shares during the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Albany International by 1.0% during the third quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 16,134 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $1,401,000 after acquiring an additional 156 shares during the last quarter. MQS Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Albany International by 2.4% during the third quarter. MQS Management LLC now owns 6,584 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $568,000 after acquiring an additional 156 shares during the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Albany International by 4.9% during the third quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 3,543 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $306,000 after acquiring an additional 167 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strs Ohio raised its stake in shares of Albany International by 22.2% during the fourth quarter. Strs Ohio now owns 1,100 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $108,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. 97.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Albany International Stock Performance

Albany International stock opened at $87.68 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $91.56 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $89.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 2.85 and a current ratio of 3.53. The stock has a market cap of $2.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.70, a PEG ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 1.25. Albany International Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $78.20 and a fifty-two week high of $99.41.

Albany International (NYSE:AIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The textile maker reported $1.22 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.38. Albany International had a return on equity of 13.70% and a net margin of 9.68%. The firm had revenue of $323.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $298.17 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.75 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Albany International Corp. will post 3.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Albany International Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.19%. Albany International’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.30%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AIN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Truist Financial increased their price target on shares of Albany International from $105.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. Bank of America reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and set a $95.00 price objective (down from $105.00) on shares of Albany International in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Albany International presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $110.50.

Albany International Profile

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.