Norges Bank Buys New Holdings in Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN)

Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 488,237 shares of the textile maker’s stock, valued at approximately $39,044,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Quarry LP raised its holdings in shares of Albany International by 515.4% during the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 480 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 402 shares during the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Albany International by 306.7% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 667 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $53,000 after buying an additional 503 shares during the last quarter. Vestcor Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Albany International in the fourth quarter worth about $70,000. KBC Group NV grew its holdings in Albany International by 41.3% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,495 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $120,000 after acquiring an additional 437 shares during the period. Finally, Central Pacific Bank Trust Division raised its position in Albany International by 16.1% during the fourth quarter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division now owns 2,305 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $184,000 after acquiring an additional 320 shares in the last quarter. 97.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Albany International from $104.00 to $92.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Albany International from $75.00 to $74.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Albany International from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Bank of America cut their price target on Albany International from $80.00 to $75.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 25th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price objective on Albany International from $85.00 to $88.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Albany International currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $82.00.

Albany International Trading Down 5.5 %

AIN stock opened at $61.58 on Friday. Albany International Corp. has a 12-month low of $60.21 and a 12-month high of $95.47. The business’s 50-day moving average is $76.07 and its 200 day moving average is $78.52. The company has a current ratio of 3.68, a quick ratio of 2.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The stock has a market cap of $1.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.24 and a beta of 1.29.

Albany International (NYSE:AIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The textile maker reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.63 by ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $286.91 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $299.52 million. Albany International had a return on equity of 12.20% and a net margin of 7.92%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Albany International Corp. will post 3.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Albany International Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 21st will be paid a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 21st. Albany International’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.71%.

Albany International Profile

Albany International Corp., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the machine clothing and engineered composites businesses. The company operates in two segments, Machine Clothing (MC) and Albany Engineered Composites (AEC). The MC segment designs, manufactures, and markets paper machine clothing for use in the manufacturing of papers, paperboards, tissues, towels, pulps, nonwovens, building products, tannery, and textiles, as well as fiber cement and several other industrial applications.