Albemarle Corp. (NYSE:ALB) finished Friday with a subtraction of -$2.36 to close at $170.04, a downside of -1.37 percent. An average of 2,169,380 shares of common stock have been traded in the last five days. There was a gain of $1.83 in the past week, and it reached a new high 6 times over the past 12 months. The last 20 days have seen an average of 1,813,045 shares traded, while the 50-day average volume stands at 1,878,822.
ALB stock has decreased by -14.38% in the last month. The company shares reached their 1-month lowest point of $162.00 on 09/26/23. With the stock rallying to its 52-week high on 02/16/23, shares of the company touched a low of $162.00 and a high of $334.55 in 52 weeks. It has reached a new high 15 times so far this year and lost -21.59% or -$46.82 in price. In spite of this, the price is down -49.17% from the 52-week high.
Insider Transactions
ALB stock investors should be aware that Albemarle Corp. (ALB) stock had its last reported insider trading activity 211 days ago on May 10. In this transaction, the insider spent $1,432,980. EVP & CFO, Tozier Scott, disposed of 417 shares at a price of $255.49 on Mar 01. The insider now owns more than $106,539 worth of shares. Prior to that, EVP & CFO Tozier Scott went on to Sale 1,719 shares at $220.00 each on Jan 06. An amount of $378,180 was transacted.
Valuation Metrics
Albemarle Corp. (ALB) has a trailing price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 5.11. The stock’s beta is 1.58. Other valuation ratios to consider include the trailing price-to-sales (P/S) ratio at 2.06, the price-to-book (PB) ratio at 2.03, and the price-to-cash flow ratio at 20.70.
The company has a payout ratio of 6.92%. The company’s most recent quarterly dividend payment was $0.40 a share, without any change from last year. Its latest increase dividend $0.0050 reported on Thursday February 23 2023.
Financial Health
The quick ratio of Albemarle Corp. for the three months ended June 29 was 0.88, and the current ratio was 1.74, indicating that the company is not able to meet its debt obligations. Further, the company has a long term debt to equity ratio of 0.37 and a total debt to equity ratio of 0.37 for the quarter ending June 29. Its gross profit as reported stood at $3.07 billion compared to revenue of $7.32 billion.
For investors, determining the potential profitability of the investment also depends on the performance of the company’s management. In the past 12 months, Albemarle Corp.’s return on assets was 24.78%.
Earnings Surprise
For the three-month period that ended June 29, Albemarle Corp. had $3.51 billion in total debt. In the quarter under review, the net income was down than the previous quarter. The company posted a net income of $650.04 million in the quarter, while revenues of $1.24 billion were grew 37.42%. The analyst consensus anticipated Albemarle Corp.’s latest quarter earnings to come in at $4.44 per share, but it turned out to be $7.33, a 65.10% surprise. For the quarter, EBITDA amounted to $233.08 million. Shareholders own equity worth $117.35 million.
Technical Picture
From a technical analysis perspective, let’s take a brief look at Albemarle Corp. (ALB) price momentum. RSI 9-day as of the close on 29 September was 38.40%, suggesting the stock is Neutral, with historical volatility in this time frame at 39.51%.
As of today, ALB’s price is $167.12 +1.09% or $1.83 from its 5-day moving average. ALB is currently trading -14.43% lower than its 20-day SMA and -8.52% lower than its 100-day SMA. However, the stock’s current price level is -23.79% below the SMA50 and -34.44% below the SMA200.
The stochastic %K and %D were 23.65% and 14.78%, respectively, and the average true range (ATR) was 5.84. With the 14-day stochastic at 30.37% and the average true range at 5.76, the RSI (14) stands at 35.97%. The stock has reached -1.33 on the 9-day MACD Oscillator while the 14-day reading was at -6.40.
Analyst Ratings
Citigroup launched coverage on Albemarle Corp. (NYSE: ALB) in its analyst report released on June 14, 2023. The firm assigned the stock a Buy rating. The consensus rating for Albemarle Corp. (ALB) among analysts is Overweight. According to current brokerage recommendations, 1 brokerage firm advise that investors sell ALB, while 4 suggest investors hold. There are 0 analysts who rate the stock as underweight. The stock is rated overweight by 2 analysts, while 20 others rate it as a “buy”.
What is ALB’s price target for the next 12 months?
Analysts predict a range of price targets between $155.00 and $344.00, with a median target of $260.50. Taking a look at these predictions, the average price target given by analysts for Albemarle Corp. (ALB) stock is $261.49.
