Albemarle Fair Value Cut 7.8% to US$172.56 as Analysts Reset Lithium Assumptions

Albemarle has drawn heightened investor attention after its shares returned -14.3% over the past month, compared with a -1.3% change for the Zacks S&P 500 composite and a 6.3% loss for the Zacks Chemical - Diversified industry. For the current quarter, the company is expected to post earnings of $2.55 per share, a change of +1442.1% from the year-ago quarter, though the Zacks Consensus Estimate has fallen 15.9% over the last 30 days. For the current fiscal year, the consensus earnings estimate of $11.39 points to a change of +1541.8% from the prior year and has declined 4.4% over the past month, while the next fiscal year's estimate of $11.07 indicates a -2.8% change and has slipped 3.9%. The consensus sales estimate of $1.52 billion for the current quarter points to a year-over-year change of +16.1%, with $6.1 billion and $6.35 billion expected for the current and next fiscal years. Albemarle reported revenues of $1.74 billion in the last reported quarter, up 31.1% year over year, with EPS of $3.75 versus $0.11 a year ago, and carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) and a Zacks Value Style Score of B.

ExxonMobil plans to invest roughly $20 billion in lower-emission projects between 2025 and 2030, and management expects newer business segments including carbon capture and storage, lithium, carbon materials, and Proxxima products to generate more than $1 billion in annual earnings by 2030, with roughly $13 billion in potential annual earnings by 2040 assuming supportive policies and sufficient market development. The company already holds contracts covering roughly 9 million metric tons of CO2 annually from industrial customers, and its first commercial carbon capture projects are now operating, which should give management enough commercial activity by 2027 to offer investors better visibility into what carbon capture can contribute financially. The bet is framed against a shifting oil demand picture: more than 20 million electric cars were sold globally in 2025, about one-quarter of all new-car sales, and the International Energy Agency expects EVs to approach 29% of global car sales in 2026, with the existing EV fleet displacing roughly 1.7 million barrels of oil demand per day in 2025 and potentially around 5 million barrels per day by 2030. ExxonMobil is also developing carbon-capture-enabled data center projects that would use natural gas to generate electricity while capturing the resulting emissions. The prediction is that 2027 is when ExxonMobil's low-carbon investments start showing up more clearly in guidance.

American Battery Technology Company reported its first-ever adjusted gross profit on its fiscal year 2026 earnings call on September 14, even as CEO Ryan Melsert disclosed a federal directive that effectively bans exports of black mass unless the company obtains a specific exception. Revenue at its flagship recycling facility jumped more than 400% year over year to $21.7 million, while cost of goods sold rose only 67% and operating cash spend fell 16%, pushing adjusted gross profit to $1.7 million from a $6.2 million loss a year earlier. Cash climbed to $49.5 million as of June 30, 2026, total assets reached $133 million, and the company erased all long-term debt. A second recycling facility planned for the Southeast U.S., designed to process 100,000 tons of batteries a year, is backed by a $150 million Department of Energy grant, and a separate $10 million DOE grant funds three next-generation recycling technologies; the Bureau of Land Management also certified the plan of operations for the Tonopah lithium project in Nevada, which holds 21.3 million tons of lithium hydroxide including 2.7 million tons of proven and probable reserves. American Battery Technology has submitted a request for the black mass export exception but had received no formal response from the Department of Commerce as of the call, and short interest sits at 16.38% of the float against a forward P/E of 37.74 as of September 16.