In the latest close session, Albemarle (ALB) was down 1.78% at $142.01. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.14%. On the other hand, the Dow registered a loss of 0.2%, and the technology-centric Nasdaq decreased by 0.24%.
The specialty chemicals company's shares have seen an increase of 12.66% over the last month, surpassing the Basic Materials sector's gain of 4.09% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.94%.
The upcoming earnings release of Albemarle will be of great interest to investors. The company is expected to report EPS of -$0.61, up 44.04% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $1.37 billion, up 11.18% from the year-ago period.
Regarding the entire year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates forecast earnings of -$1.09 per share and revenue of $5.08 billion, indicating changes of +53.42% and -5.5%, respectively, compared to the previous year.
Investors should also take note of any recent adjustments to analyst estimates for Albemarle. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. Consequently, upward revisions in estimates express analysts' positivity towards the business operations and its ability to generate profits.
Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-term stock moves. To utilize this, we have created the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model that integrates these estimate changes and provides a functional rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 10.43% higher. Albemarle is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
The Chemical - Diversified industry is part of the Basic Materials sector. This industry, currently bearing a Zacks Industry Rank of 222, finds itself in the bottom 11% echelons 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.
Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.
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Albemarle Corporation (ALB): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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