Why Albemarle Stock Surged More Than 20% in February
Shares of (NYSE: ALB), the world's largest lithium producer, rose by an impressive 20.1% in February, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. That rise was powered by a combination of its fourth-quarter earnings report (which it released on Valentine's Day), an uptick in the price of lithium, and the earnings report and commentary of the world's second-largest lithium producer, Sociedad Quimica y Miera de Chile (NYSE: SQM), aka SQM.
There's very little lithium producers can do about falling prices in the near term, and Albemarle's sales declined by 10.1% year over year in Q4 on the back of a significantly weaker price of lithium. That particularly hit home because Albemarle's core energy storage sales volume actually rose 35% year over year in the quarter. Underlying demand for lithium is still strong, driven by the demand for electric vehicle (EV) batteries.
However, a near 80% slump in the price of lithium over 2023 means that in 2024 Albemarle is on track for a significant slump in its revenue and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA). On average, Wall Street analysts are forecasting a 38.5% decline in Albemarle's sales this year, and some analysts recently downgraded the stock.
Source Fool.com
Albemarle Corp Stock
Our community is currently high on Albemarle Corp with 32 Buy predictions and 5 Sell predictions.
As a result the target price of 147 € shows a very positive potential of 80.04% compared to the current price of 81.65 € for Albemarle Corp.