Short Interest in Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN) Rises By 11.2%

Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN) was the target 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 trading volume, of 257,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.4 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AIN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Truist Financial increased their target price on Albany International from $85.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Albany International from $75.00 to $74.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Albany International from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Bank of America dropped their target price on shares of Albany International from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded shares of Albany International to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $80.75.

Insider Activity at Albany International

In other Albany International news, VP Joseph M. Gaug bought 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $71.24 per share, for a total transaction of $71,240.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 6,811 shares in the company, valued at approximately $485,215.64. The trade was a 17.21 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Gunnar Kleveland purchased 1,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $71.25 per share, with a total value of $99,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 8,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $590,235. This represents a 20.34 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders purchased 3,450 shares of company stock worth $245,813. Company insiders own 0.92% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Albany International

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AIN. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Albany International by 24.0% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 847,829 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $75,330,000 after acquiring an additional 163,934 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in Albany International by 60.5% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 161,340 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $14,335,000 after purchasing an additional 60,812 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Albany International by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 2,592,787 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $218,961,000 after purchasing an additional 53,743 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Albany International by 5.1% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,091,660 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $92,192,000 after buying an additional 52,909 shares during the period. Finally, Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC raised its stake in shares of Albany International by 176.9% during the second quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC now owns 66,900 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $5,650,000 after buying an additional 42,740 shares during the last quarter. 97.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Albany International Price Performance

Shares of AIN stock traded up $0.05 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $81.36. 106,847 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 182,907. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $81.40 and its 200-day moving average is $83.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 3.68 and a quick ratio of 2.94. Albany International has a 52 week low of $67.39 and a 52 week high of $98.73. The stock has a market cap of $2.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.42 and a beta of 1.35.

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

Albany International Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This is an increase 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 yield of 1.33%. Albany International’s dividend payout ratio is currently 33.75%.

About Albany International

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.