Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Alcoa (NYSE:AA)

Alcoa Co. (NYSE:AA) saw some unusual options trading on Thursday. Stock investors bought 39,703 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 118% compared to the average volume of 18,245 call options.

Institutional Trading of Alcoa

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AA. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC raised its position in shares of Alcoa by 4,023.0% during the 3rd quarter. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC now owns 10,795,880 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $416,505,000 after buying an additional 10,534,036 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its position in Alcoa by 23.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,563,645 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $368,965,000 after purchasing an additional 1,805,915 shares during the period. Paloma Partners Management Co lifted its stake in shares of Alcoa by 11,317.8% in the 3rd quarter. Paloma Partners Management Co now owns 1,427,799 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $55,084,000 after purchasing an additional 1,415,294 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP grew its holdings in shares of Alcoa by 770.9% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,422,797 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $56,599,000 after purchasing an additional 1,259,430 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Alcoa by 42.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,193,744 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $161,838,000 after purchasing an additional 1,239,479 shares during the last quarter.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Alcoa from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Alcoa from $48.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Alcoa from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Alcoa to $43.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on Alcoa to $58.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 28th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.36.

Alcoa Stock Performance

NYSE AA opened at $37.33 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 1.41. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $40.46 and its two-hundred day moving average is $37.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.64 billion, a P/E ratio of -21.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.16 and a beta of 2.47. Alcoa has a fifty-two week low of $24.86 and a fifty-two week high of $47.77.

Alcoa (NYSE:AA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The industrial products company reported $1.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.13. Alcoa had a negative net margin of 2.65% and a negative return on equity of 1.45%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Alcoa will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current year.

About Alcoa

Alcoa Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, produces and sells bauxite, alumina, and aluminum products in the United States, Spain, Australia, Iceland, Norway, Brazil, Canada, and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Alumina and Aluminum. It engages in bauxite mining operations; and processes bauxite into alumina and sells it to customers who process it into industrial chemical products, as well as aluminum smelting and casting businesses.