Albemarle (ALB) Stock Moves -0.9%: What You Should Know
In the latest trading session, Albemarle (ALB) closed at $221.15, marking a -0.9% move from the previous day. This change was narrower than the S&P 500's daily loss of 1.57%. At the same time, the Dow lost 1.56%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.09%.
Coming into today, shares of the specialty chemicals company had gained 16.76% in the past month. In that same time, the Basic Materials sector gained 9.98%, while the S&P 500 gained 5.37%.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Albemarle as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect Albemarle to post earnings of $1.65 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 50%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $1.04 billion, up 25.18% from the year-ago period.
Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $5.98 per share and revenue of $4.41 billion. These totals would mark changes of +48.02% and +32.39%, respectively, from last year.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Albemarle. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.
Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.21% lower. Albemarle currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
In terms of valuation, Albemarle is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 37.32. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 12.26, which means Albemarle is trading at a premium to the group.
It is also worth noting that ALB currently has a PEG ratio of 1.67. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. ALB's industry had an average PEG ratio of 0.93 as of yesterday's close.
The Chemical - Diversified industry is part of the Basic Materials sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 167, which puts it in the bottom 35% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.
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