Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) Cut to “Sell” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note released on Monday morning.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on the stock. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Century Aluminum from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $27.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. BMO Capital Markets raised Century Aluminum from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, February 24th.

Century Aluminum Stock Up 2.2 %

Shares of CENX stock opened at $19.00 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $19.32 and its 200 day moving average price is $18.91. Century Aluminum has a 1-year low of $11.40 and a 1-year high of $25.39. The company has a market cap of $1.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.01 and a beta of 2.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 1.71 and a quick ratio of 0.56.

Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The industrial products company reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $631.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $515.27 million. Century Aluminum had a return on equity of 13.38% and a net margin of 14.69%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.39 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Century Aluminum will post 2.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Century Aluminum

In other news, CAO Robert F. Hoffman sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.99, for a total value of $49,975.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 64,083 shares in the company, valued at $1,281,019.17. This represents a 3.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.68% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of CENX. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Century Aluminum during the 4th quarter worth approximately $39,000. AlphaQuest LLC grew its position in Century Aluminum by 2,889.3% during the fourth quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 2,511 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 2,427 shares during the period. FNY Investment Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in Century Aluminum during the fourth quarter valued at $54,000. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Century Aluminum by 159.2% in the fourth quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,256 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $59,000 after buying an additional 2,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Century Aluminum in the third quarter worth about $189,000. 61.59% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Century Aluminum

Century Aluminum Company, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the production of standard-grade and value-added primary aluminum products in the United States and Iceland. It also owns and operates an alumina production facility in Iceland, and a carbon anode production facility in the Netherlands.