Media stories about Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) have trended somewhat positive recently, according to Accern. The research firm ranks the sentiment of press coverage by analyzing more than twenty million blog and news sources in real time. Accern ranks coverage of public companies on a scale of negative one to positive one, with scores nearest to one being the most favorable. Albemarle earned a media sentiment score of 0.13 on Accern’s scale. Accern also gave headlines about the specialty chemicals company an impact score of 47.6820477137804 out of 100, indicating that recent press coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an effect on the stock’s share price in the near term.
Shares of ALB traded up $0.29 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $100.90. The stock had a trading volume of 1,248,700 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,832,427. Albemarle has a one year low of $86.75 and a one year high of $144.99. The company has a market cap of $10.79 billion, a PE ratio of 21.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 2.19 and a quick ratio of 1.55.
Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 7th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.36 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.28 by $0.08. Albemarle had a net margin of 10.17% and a return on equity of 14.51%. The company had revenue of $853.87 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $799.49 million. analysts expect that Albemarle will post 5.39 earnings per share for the current year.
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 1st. Investors of record on Friday, September 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.335 per share. This represents a $1.34 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.33%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 13th. Albemarle’s payout ratio is 29.19%.
A number of brokerages have issued reports on ALB. Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Albemarle from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $125.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 3rd. Zacks Investment Research cut shares of Albemarle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 7th. ValuEngine cut shares of Albemarle from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 7th. Bank of America began coverage on shares of Albemarle in a research report on Monday, June 25th. They set a “buy” rating and a $115.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Vertical Research raised shares of Albemarle from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and twenty-one have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. The stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $131.97.
In related news, EVP Karen G. Narwold sold 3,100 shares of Albemarle stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.11, for a total transaction of $301,041.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 30,242 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,936,800.62. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.80% of the company’s stock.
