Franklin Resources Inc. Buys 988 Shares of Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN)

Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in shares of Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN) by 20.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,839 shares of the textile maker’s stock after buying an additional 988 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc.’s holdings in Albany International were worth $467,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Jane Street Group LLC increased its holdings in Albany International by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 38,753 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $3,443,000 after acquiring an additional 629 shares during the period. Barclays PLC grew its position in shares of Albany International by 305.5% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 53,227 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $4,728,000 after purchasing an additional 40,101 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Albany International by 1.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 715,779 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $63,609,000 after purchasing an additional 8,356 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Albany International by 6.6% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 586,268 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $52,071,000 after buying an additional 36,274 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in Albany International by 14.0% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 80,618 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $7,163,000 after buying an additional 9,931 shares during the period. 97.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on AIN shares. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on Albany International from $104.00 to $92.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 28th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Albany International from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Albany International to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of Albany International from $88.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Finally, Bank of America lowered their price objective on shares of Albany International from $80.00 to $75.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $80.40.

Albany International Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE AIN opened at $63.46 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.83 and a beta of 1.29. 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 Corp. has a one year low of $57.71 and a one year high of $95.47. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $72.31 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $76.85.

Albany International (NYSE:AIN) last released its 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). The business had revenue of $286.91 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $299.52 million. Albany International had a net margin of 7.92% and a return on equity of 12.20%. As a group, analysts expect that Albany International Corp. will post 3.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Albany International Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 21st were paid a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 21st. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.70%. Albany International’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 38.71%.

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.