Yahoo Finance Albemarle (ALB) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know
Albemarle (ALB) closed at $219.62 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.37% move from the prior day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.62%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.5%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 5.66%.
Prior to today's trading, shares of the specialty chemicals company had gained 12.5% over the past month. This has outpaced the Basic Materials sector's loss of 1.53% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.44% in that time.
Albemarle will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect Albemarle to post earnings of $4.28 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 24.06%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $2.56 billion, up 73.09% from the year-ago period.
For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $22.77 per share and revenue of $10.28 billion, which would represent changes of +3.69% and +40.49%, respectively, from the prior year.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Albemarle. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.
Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.
Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 3.2% higher within the past month. Albemarle is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.
In terms of valuation, Albemarle is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 9.61. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 14.23, which means Albemarle is trading at a discount to the group.
We can also see that ALB currently has a PEG ratio of 0.6. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. ALB's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.45 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 157, which puts it in the bottom 38% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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.
To follow ALB in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.
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Albemarle Corporation (ALB) : Free Stock Analysis Report
