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Albemarle (ALB) Dips More Than Broader Markets: What You Should Know

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Albemarle (ALB - Free Report) closed at $233.38 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.96% move from the prior day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.1%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.47%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.47%.

Heading into today, shares of the specialty chemicals company had lost 10.96% over the past month, lagging the Basic Materials sector's gain of 6.68% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.67% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Albemarle as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be February 16, 2022. In that report, analysts expect Albemarle to post earnings of $0.96 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 17.95%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $884.18 million, up 0.57% from the year-ago period.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Albemarle. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. 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 ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 4.16% higher. Albemarle is holding a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy) right now.

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Albemarle has a Forward P/E ratio of 39.51 right now. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 12.68.

We can also see that ALB currently has a PEG ratio of 1.79. 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 1.06 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 101, which puts it in the top 40% 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.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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