Albemarle (ALB) Announces 5% Hike In Quarterly Dividend

Albemarle Corporation’s (NYSE:ALB) board has announced a roughly 5% increase in its quarterly dividend from 32 cents to 33.5 cents per share of common stock. This equates to a new annualized dividend rate of $1.34, which is payable on Apr 2 to stockholders on record as of Mar 15. Notably, this is the 24th straight year that the company has hiked its quarterly dividend.

Albemarle ended the third quarter with cash and cash equivalents of roughly $1,045.3 million, a nearly five-fold year-over-year increase. During the first nine months of 2017, the company returned roughly $355 million to shareholders, including dividends of around $105.2 million and share repurchase worth $250. Albemarle also lowered its long-term debt around 54% year over year to $1,407.2 million at the end of third quarter.

Moreover, Albemarle raised its guidance for full-year 2017 in November 2017 and expects full-year net sales between $3 billion and $3.05 billion compared with the prior view of $2.90-$3.05 billion. The company expects adjusted earnings per share between $4.40 and $4.50 (up from prior view of $4.20 and $4.40) and adjusted EBITDA of $860-$875 million (compared with $835-$875 million expected earlier).

Albemarle’s shares have moved up 28.5% over the last three months, outperforming 19.8% growth recorded by its industry.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Albemarle currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks in the basic materials space are Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) , The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) and United States Steel Corporation (NYSE:X) , each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Steel Dynamics has an expected long-term earnings growth rate of 12%. Its shares have soared 37.7% over the last six months.

Mosaic has an expected long-term earnings growth rate of 9.5%. Its shares have moved up 43.2% over the past six months.

U.S. Steel has an expected long-term earnings growth rate of 8%. Its shares have rallied 72.2% over the last six months.

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