Topic: How To Invest

Q: Pat: Hi: What is your opinion of Albemarle (ALB) and lithium in general? Thanks.

Article Excerpt

A: Albemarle Corp., $96.99, symbol ALB on New York (Shares outstanding: 110.8 million; Market cap: $10.4 billion; www.albemarle.com), is a global specialty chemicals company with three main businesses: Lithium and Advanced Materials, Bromine Specialties, and Refining Solutions. The end markets it serves include petroleum refining, consumer electronics, energy storage, construction, automotive, lubricants, pharmaceuticals, crop protection, food safety and custom chemistry services. The company’s primary growth area is its lithium business. It develops and manufactures a broad range of basic lithium compounds, including lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide, lithium chloride, and value-added lithium specialties and reagents (used analyze chemicals). Those include butyllithium and lithium aluminum hydride. The lithium unit (contributing around 48% of overall sales) should prosper with increasing lithium demand. That chemical is needed by the makers of electric car batteries, electric grid and power storage entities, and the makers of smartphones, portable electronic devices and lubricants. Albemarle’s revenue for the three months ended June 30, 2018, rose 15.8%, to $853.9 million from $737.3…