Vienna Powszechne Towarzystwo Emerytalne S.A. Vienna Insurance Group Increases Stock Position in Albemarle Corporation $ALB

Vienna Powszechne Towarzystwo Emerytalne S.A. Vienna Insurance Group increased its stake in shares of Albemarle Corporation (NYSE:ALB) by 19.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 14,864 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,455 shares during the quarter. Vienna Powszechne Towarzystwo Emerytalne S.A. Vienna Insurance Group’s holdings in Albemarle were worth $932,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ALB. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 24.5% during the first quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 43,541 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $3,136,000 after purchasing an additional 8,572 shares during the period. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 15.2% during the first quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,474 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $250,000 after purchasing an additional 458 shares during the period. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 1.8% during the first quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 44,729 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $3,221,000 after purchasing an additional 779 shares during the period. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 9.3% during the first quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 28,413 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $2,046,000 after purchasing an additional 2,426 shares during the period. Finally, Money Concepts Capital Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Albemarle during the first quarter worth $710,000. 92.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Albemarle from $60.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 18th. Rothschild Redb raised Albemarle to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Albemarle in a report on Friday. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their target price on Albemarle from $80.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 17th. Finally, Scotiabank raised their target price on Albemarle from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and five have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $95.33.

Albemarle Trading Up 8.5%

NYSE:ALB opened at $105.65 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $12.43 billion, a PE ratio of -11.34 and a beta of 1.65. 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 Corporation has a 52-week low of $49.43 and a 52-week high of $113.91. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $85.52 and a 200-day simple moving average of $71.54.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.83) by $0.94. The business had revenue of $1.33 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.23 billion. Albemarle had a negative return on equity of 1.87% and a negative net margin of 18.61%.The business’s revenue was down 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.04 EPS. Albemarle has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Albemarle Corporation will post -0.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Albemarle Profile

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.