Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN) Short Interest Down 13.2% in February

Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN) saw a large decrease in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 457,100 shares, a decrease of 13.2% from the February 13th total of 526,500 shares. Currently, 1.5% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 194,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.3 days.

Albany International Stock Up 0.8 %

NYSE:AIN traded up $0.58 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $74.47. The stock had a trading volume of 29,526 shares, compared to its average volume of 194,461. The business’s 50 day moving average is $78.77 and its 200 day moving average is $79.95. Albany International has a fifty-two week low of $67.39 and a fifty-two week high of $96.49. The stock has a market cap of $2.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.27 and a beta of 1.37. 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 (NYSE:AIN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The textile maker reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.63 by ($0.05). Albany International had a net margin of 7.92% and a return on equity of 12.20%. The company had revenue of $286.91 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $299.52 million. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Albany International will post 3.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Albany International Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 21st. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.45%. Albany International’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.71%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AIN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. TD Cowen raised shares of Albany International to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Albany International from $75.00 to $74.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Albany International from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Albany International from $104.00 to $92.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Albany International from $85.00 to $88.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $83.00.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Albany International

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AIN. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Albany International by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,493,846 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $279,403,000 after purchasing an additional 12,687 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC lifted its position in Albany International by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 2,641,108 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $211,209,000 after purchasing an additional 99,149 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in Albany International by 3,050.6% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,363,946 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $109,075,000 after purchasing an additional 1,320,654 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in Albany International by 3.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,218,058 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $108,544,000 after acquiring an additional 36,944 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Albany International by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,103,121 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $88,217,000 after acquiring an additional 9,226 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.37% of the company’s stock.

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.