Albemarle (ALB) offers investors solid earnings growth and a decent dividend yield.
Company Description
Albemarle Corporation develops, manufactures, and markets engineered specialty chemicals. It operates in three segments: Polymer Additives, Catalysts, and Fine Chemicals.
Improving Business Conditions
The company has seen modest but steady improvement in most of its businesses since the second quarter of 2009. Management expects operating efficiency gains, new product sales, and improving consumer appetite for electronics to drive its revenue and earnings growth in 2010.
This helped Albemarle report fourth-quarter net sales of $558.2 million, up 8% year-over-year and sequentially. Earnings per share were $0.64 per share, excluding special items and one-time tax benefits, up 54% year-over-year and $0.07 above the Zacks Consensus Estimate.
The better results enabled the company to boost its quarterly dividend by 12% to $0.14 per share for shareholders of record on March 15. This could help grow the company’s already decent 1.3% dividend yield.
Estimates Are Trending Higher
The company’s solid results prompted analysts to increase their estimates in the last 30 days. The Zacks Consensus EPS Estimate for 2010 moved from $2.50 to $2.63, while the consensus for 2011 went from $2.90 to $3.04.
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