Short Interest in Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN) Increases By 29.8%

Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest during the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 593,500 shares, an increase of 29.8% from the February 28th total of 457,100 shares. Currently, 1.9% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 226,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.6 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on AIN shares. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on Albany International from $104.00 to $92.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. Bank of America decreased 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. 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 note 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, Truist Financial boosted their price target on shares of Albany International from $85.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Albany International has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $82.00.

Albany International Price Performance

Shares of AIN traded up $1.31 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $70.35. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 249,211 shares, compared to its average volume of 197,805. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 3.68 and a quick ratio of 2.94. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $76.97 and a 200 day moving average price of $78.89. Albany International has a fifty-two week low of $67.39 and a fifty-two week high of $95.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.98 and a beta of 1.37.

Albany International (NYSE:AIN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The textile maker reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.63 by ($0.05). The business had revenue of $286.91 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $299.52 million. Albany International had a return on equity of 12.20% and a net margin of 7.92%. On average, research analysts predict that Albany International will post 3.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Albany International Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 21st. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.54%. Albany International’s payout ratio is presently 38.71%.

Institutional Trading of Albany International

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its holdings in shares of Albany International by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 3,730 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $298,000 after acquiring an additional 133 shares during the period. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC raised its stake in Albany International by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC now owns 4,825 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $386,000 after purchasing an additional 155 shares during the period. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Albany International by 6.8% in the fourth quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 3,265 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $261,000 after purchasing an additional 207 shares in the last quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL lifted its holdings in shares of Albany International by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 49,080 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $3,925,000 after purchasing an additional 265 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Central Pacific Bank Trust Division boosted its position in shares of Albany International by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division now owns 2,305 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $184,000 after buying an additional 320 shares during the period. 97.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.