Albemarle Corporation ALB has announced its decision to raise the price of selected brominated flame retardants and bromine derivatives by 5%. The hike will be effective from Jan 1, 2017, or as contracts allow.
The specialty chemical maker has decided to raise the price of the products to maintain investments in product quality, consistency, development and stewardship. It will also help Albemarle offset the increasing raw material costs.
In the third quarter of 2016, Albemarle’s Bromine Specialties segment saw its EBITDA margin fall to 26.6% from 30.8% in the prior-year quarter. While sales in the segment increased roughly 2%, EBITDA fell 11.9% year over year in the quarter. Sales in the reported quarter were supported by currency tailwinds and higher sales volumes, partially offset by lower prices.
Shares of Albemarle rose roughly 1.7% to close at $86.28 on Dec 5.
In third-quarter 2016, Albemarle reported adjusted earnings of 91 cents per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 81 cents. Reported earnings of $128.2 million, or $1.13 per share, were up 96% from the prior-year quarter. However, net sales in the quarter were down around 5.7% year over year to $654 million. The decrease was driven by the divestitures of metal sulfides and minerals-based flame retardants and specialty chemicals businesses, partly offset by the impact of higher sales volumes, as well as favorable price and mix impacts in some segments and currency tailwinds.
Albemarle expects favorable performance in the Lithium and Refining Solutions segments in 2016. The company projects net sales to be between $2.6 billion and $2.7 billion, with adjusted EBITDA between $725 million and $745 million. Adjusted diluted earnings are expected to range between $3.45−$3.55 per share, higher than the previous guidance of $3.35−$3.60.
Zacks Rank
Albemarle currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Better-ranked companies in the chemical space include FMC Corp. FMC, The Chemours Company CC and Innophos Holdings Inc IPHS. All of them hold a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
FMC has an expected long-term growth rate of 10.88%.
Chemours has a long-term expected growth rate of 15.5%.
Innophos Holdings saw a positive earnings surprise of 13.64% in the last reported quarter.
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