Albemarle Stock: Is Wall Street Bullish or Bearish?

Charlotte, North Carolina-based Albemarle Corporation (ALB) develops, manufactures, and markets engineered specialty chemicals worldwide. With a market cap of $11.4 billion, Albemarle operates through Energy Storage, Specialties, and Ketjen segments.

Specialty chemical giant Albemarle has notably underperformed the broader market over the past year. ALB stock prices have gained 12.9% on a YTD basis and declined 2.8% over the past 52 weeks, compared to the S&P 500 Index’s ($SPX) 14.4% gains in 2025 and 12.7% returns over the past year.

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Narrowing the focus, ALB has outpaced the sector-focused Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund’s (XLB) 2% uptick in 2025 and 10% plunge over the past 52 weeks.

Albemarle’s stock prices observed a marginal dip in the trading session following the release of its mixed Q3 results on Nov. 5. While its specialties segment’s volumes dropped by 1%, its energy storage and Ketjen volumes increased by 8% each. However, its overall results were severely impacted by unfavorable pricing. ALB’s topline came in at $1.3 billion, down 3.5% year-over-year, but 1.2% above the Street expectations. Meanwhile, it reported a negative adjusted EPS of $0.19, but it surpassed the consensus estimates by 79.4%.

For the full fiscal 2025, ending in December, Albemarle is expected to deliver an adjusted loss of $1.59 per share, up from the loss of $2.34 per share reported in the year-ago quarter. The company has a mixed earnings surprise history. While it missed the Street’s bottom-line expectations once over the past four quarters, it has surpassed the projections on three other occasions.

Among the 28 analysts covering the ALB stock, the consensus rating is a “Hold.” That’s based on six “Strong Buys,” two “Moderate Buys,” 16 “Holds,” and two “Strong Sells.”

This configuration is slightly pessimistic compared to a month ago, when seven analysts gave “Strong Buy” recommendations.

On Nov. 7, Truist Securities analyst Peter Osterland maintained a “Hold” rating on ALB and raised the price target from $87 to $91.

As of writing, ALB is trading above its mean price target of $95.21. Meanwhile, the street-high target of $135 suggests a 38.9% upside potential from current price levels.

On the date of publication, Aditya Sarawgi did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.

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