Albemarle: 4Q Earnings Snapshot

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) _ Albemarle Corp. (ALB) on Wednesday reported fourth-quarter net income of $129.6 million, after reporting a loss in the same period a year earlier.

On a per-share basis, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based company said it had net income of $1.21. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs, came to $1.53 per share.

The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.46 per share.

The specialty chemicals company posted revenue of $921.7 million in the period, also topping Street forecasts. Five analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $889.9 million.

For the year, the company reported profit of $693.6 million, or $6.34 per share. Revenue was reported as $3.37 billion.

Albemarle expects full-year earnings in the range of $6.10 to $6.50 per share, with revenue in the range of $3.65 billion to $3.85 billion.

Albemarle shares have risen 7.5 percent since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Wednesday, shares hit $82.82, a drop of 28 percent in the last 12 months.

_____

This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on ALB at https://www.zacks.com/ap/ALB