Albemarle Co. (ALB) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.40 on July 1st

Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, May 7th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.40 per share by the specialty chemicals company on Monday, July 1st. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.23%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th.

Albemarle has increased its dividend payment by an average of 1.3% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 29 consecutive years. Albemarle has a payout ratio of 20.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Albemarle to earn $6.95 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 23.0%.

Albemarle Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ALB opened at $130.40 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 2.84 and a quick ratio of 1.91. The company has a market cap of $15.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 1.65. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $123.47 and its two-hundred day moving average is $125.93. Albemarle has a 1-year low of $106.69 and a 1-year high of $247.44.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by ($0.09). Albemarle had a return on equity of 14.53% and a net margin of 4.02%. The firm had revenue of $1.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.29 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $10.32 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 47.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Albemarle will post 2.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on ALB. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Albemarle from $137.00 to $125.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Albemarle from $138.00 to $157.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday. Vertical Research downgraded Albemarle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $145.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Friday, March 8th. Loop Capital decreased their target price on Albemarle from $168.00 to $162.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on shares of Albemarle from $125.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Albemarle presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $172.05.

Albemarle Company 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.