News stories about Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) have been trending somewhat positive recently, according to Accern. The research firm scores the sentiment of news coverage by reviewing more than 20 million news and blog sources in real time. Accern ranks coverage of publicly-traded companies on a scale of negative one to positive one, with scores nearest to one being the most favorable. Albemarle earned a news sentiment score of 0.13 on Accern’s scale. Accern also assigned news headlines about the specialty chemicals company an impact score of 47.6820477137804 out of 100, meaning that recent news coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an impact on the stock’s share price in the near future.
NYSE:ALB opened at $97.66 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.99, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.69. Albemarle has a one year low of $86.75 and a one year high of $144.99. 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 7th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.36 EPS for the quarter, topping the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $1.28 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $853.87 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $799.49 million. Albemarle had a return on equity of 14.51% and a net margin of 10.17%. analysts predict that Albemarle will post 5.39 EPS for the current year.
The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 14th will be issued a $0.335 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 13th. This represents a $1.34 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.37%. Albemarle’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.19%.
ALB has been the topic of a number of research reports. Zacks Investment Research cut Albemarle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, May 18th. SunTrust Banks upgraded Albemarle from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $110.00 to $115.00 in a report on Tuesday. Bank of America started coverage on Albemarle in a report on Monday, June 25th. They set a “buy” rating and a $115.00 target price on the stock. ValuEngine cut Albemarle from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 29th. Finally, Nomura reduced their price target on Albemarle to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and twenty-one have issued a buy rating to the stock. The company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $131.97.
In other Albemarle news, EVP Karen G. Narwold sold 3,100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.11, for a total value of $301,041.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 30,242 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,936,800.62. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.80% of the company’s stock.