Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) lost ground Wednesday morning after Bank of America downgraded the chemicals manufacturing stock to underperform from neutral. The bank significantly cut its earnings forecast for Albemarle and lowered its price target to $195. The new target implies the stock could fall about 7% from Tuesday’s close.
Last week, Albemarle submitted a proposal to buy Australian lithium start-up Liontown Resources in a deal valued at ~A$5.5B (US$3.66B).
Liontown management rejected the A$2.50/share bid as inadequate, and investors appear to agree, sending the stock soaring as much as 70% in Sydney to A$2.57, $0.07 higher than the Albemarle offer.
Albemarle is "poised for rapid long-term expansion thanks to the rising demand for lithium to power EVs and charging stations," Yannick Frey writes in an analysis posted recently on Seeking Alpha .
Albemarle boasts it is a global leader in transforming essential resources into critical ingredients for mobility, energy, connectivity, and health. Together with our world-class lithium and bromine resources, technical and process knowledge, and safety and sustainability performance, we partner with our customers to pioneer new ways to move, power, connect, and protect.
ALB shares collapsed $10.35, or 4.9%, to $199.22
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