Essex Financial Services Inc. Sells 714 Shares of Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN)

Essex Financial Services Inc. decreased its position in Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN) by 8.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,428 shares of the textile maker’s stock after selling 714 shares during the period. Essex Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Albany International were worth $594,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Albany International by 22.1% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 3,038 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $257,000 after purchasing an additional 549 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning raised its holdings in Albany International by 3.0% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 5,018 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $424,000 after buying an additional 147 shares during the period. Inspire Investing LLC lifted its stake in Albany International by 12.5% in the third quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 4,670 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $415,000 after buying an additional 520 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Albany International by 20.2% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,245 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $274,000 after buying an additional 545 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of Albany International by 60.5% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 161,340 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $14,335,000 after acquiring an additional 60,812 shares in the last quarter. 97.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on AIN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective 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. Truist Financial upped their price objective on Albany International from $85.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Bank of America dropped 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. TD Cowen raised Albany International to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Albany International from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $80.75.

Albany International Price Performance

NYSE:AIN opened at $79.45 on Thursday. Albany International Corp. has a 52-week low of $67.39 and a 52-week high of $98.73. The company has a market cap of $2.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.83 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 2.94 and a current ratio of 3.68. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $80.67 and its 200 day simple moving average is $82.21.

Albany International Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. This is a positive change from Albany International’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.36%. Albany International’s payout ratio is 33.75%.

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.