Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN) Short Interest Up 11.2% in December

Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest during the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 606,100 shares, a growth of 11.2% from the December 15th total of 545,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 257,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.4 days.

Insider Activity at Albany International

In other Albany International news, VP Joseph M. Gaug purchased 1,000 shares of Albany International stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $71.24 per share, for a total transaction of $71,240.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the vice president now owns 6,811 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $485,215.64. This trade represents a 17.21 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Robert Alan Hansen acquired 1,050 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $71.26 per share, for a total transaction of $74,823.00. Following the purchase, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,387 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $597,657.62. This trade represents a 14.31 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders purchased 3,450 shares of company stock valued at $245,813. Insiders own 0.92% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Albany International

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AIN. Quarry LP raised its stake in shares of Albany International by 515.4% during the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 480 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 402 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Albany International by 33.4% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 899 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $80,000 after buying an additional 225 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its position in shares of Albany International by 28.9% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,058 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $94,000 after acquiring an additional 237 shares during the last quarter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division increased its holdings in Albany International by 40.3% during the third quarter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division now owns 1,985 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $176,000 after buying an additional 570 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bridges Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in Albany International in the third quarter valued at approximately $206,000. 97.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Albany International Stock Performance

NYSE AIN traded up $0.05 during trading on Monday, reaching $81.36. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 106,847 shares, compared to its average volume of 182,907. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $81.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $83.07. Albany International has a 12 month low of $67.39 and a 12 month high of $98.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.42 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a current ratio of 3.68, a quick ratio of 2.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36.

Albany International (NYSE:AIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The textile maker reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.35. Albany International had a return on equity of 12.20% and a net margin of 7.92%. The business had revenue of $298.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $304.51 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.02 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Albany International will post 3.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Albany International Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th were paid a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. This is an increase from Albany International’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. Albany International’s payout ratio is 33.75%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AIN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com cut Albany International from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of Albany International from $85.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Albany International from $75.00 to $74.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Albany International to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Bank of America decreased their target price on Albany International from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $80.75.

Albany International Company 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.