Albemarle (ALB) Rewards Investors with 5% Hike in Dividend
Chemical maker Albemarle Corporation ALB has announced a 5% increase in its quarterly dividend to 30.5 cents per share from 29 cents paid earlier. The revised dividend, which has a new annualized rate of $1.22, is payable on Apr 1, to shareholders on record at the close of business as of Mar 16, 2016.
The hike represents the 22nd straight year of dividend increase by the company. The company hiked its dividend in Feb 2015 by 5% to 29 cents per share from 27.5 cents.
Albemarle’s shares rose roughly 2.5% in the trading session yesterday, before closing the day lower at $56.22.
Louisiana-based Albemarle is a premier specialty chemicals company with leading positions in attractive end markets globally.
The company recently wrapped up the sale of its Mineral Flame Retardants and Specialty Chemicals businesses to Huber Engineered Materials. The divestment is in sync with Albemarle’s strategy of selling non-core businesses and assets to boost growth opportunities. Albemarle also completed the divestiture of its Tribotecc metal sulfides business to Treibacher Industrie AG, a leading player in the chemistry and metallurgy sectors.
In addition, the company recently received the nod from the Environmental Assessment Commission of the Antofagasta Region to increase its present authorized extraction rate of lithium brine at its Salar de Atacama facility in Chile. This permission to increase the extraction rate will help Albemarle address the strong demand for lithium, mainly high purity lithium compounds, which are essential for the production of lithium batteries.
Albemarle currently holds a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
Some better-ranked companies in the chemical space are Koninklijke DSM N.V. RDSMY, Asahi Kasei Corp. AHKSY and American Vanguard Corp. AVD. While Koninklijke DSM and Asahi Kasei sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), American Vanguard carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
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