Kestra Investment Management LLC Takes $48,000 Position in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB)

Kestra Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 557 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $48,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Albemarle by 38.2% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,020,590 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $96,660,000 after purchasing an additional 282,194 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Albemarle by 71.5% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 14,948 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,287,000 after purchasing an additional 6,234 shares during the last quarter. Bristlecone Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Albemarle by 20.5% during the 4th quarter. Bristlecone Advisors LLC now owns 28,824 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $2,481,000 after purchasing an additional 4,899 shares during the last quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC grew its position in Albemarle by 28.7% during the 3rd quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC now owns 705,719 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $66,839,000 after acquiring an additional 157,319 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in Albemarle by 28.5% in the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 423,049 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $40,067,000 after purchasing an additional 93,718 shares during the period. 92.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ALB has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Albemarle from $73.00 to $68.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Truist Financial decreased their price target on Albemarle from $96.00 to $85.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on Albemarle from $103.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. KeyCorp reduced their target price on Albemarle from $127.00 to $122.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their target price on Albemarle from $90.00 to $85.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Albemarle currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $109.68.

Albemarle Trading Down 1.5 %

NYSE ALB opened at $81.26 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $86.93 and its 200 day moving average is $92.05. Albemarle Co. has a twelve month low of $71.97 and a twelve month high of $143.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.55 billion, a PE ratio of -7.26, a P/E/G ratio of 11.64 and a beta of 1.59.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The specialty chemicals company reported ($1.09) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.60) by ($0.49). Albemarle had a negative return on equity of 1.72% and a negative net margin of 21.93%. Research analysts forecast that Albemarle Co. will post 0.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Albemarle news, CEO J Kent Masters sold 2,525 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.12, for a total value of $255,328.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 73,747 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,457,296.64. The trade was a 3.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.38% of the company’s stock.

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.