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 report released on Monday.

Several other brokerages have also issued reports on CENX. Wolfe Research raised Century Aluminum from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $27.00 target price for the company in a research report 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 objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 24th.

Century Aluminum Stock Performance

Shares of CENX stock opened at $18.91 on Monday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $19.38 and its 200-day moving average price is $18.87. Century Aluminum has a 12 month low of $11.40 and a 12 month high of $25.39. The company has a current ratio of 1.71, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.98 and a beta of 2.67.

Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) last posted its 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 firm had revenue of $631.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $515.27 million. Century Aluminum had a net margin of 14.69% and a return on equity of 13.38%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.39 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Century Aluminum will post 2.76 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Century Aluminum

In other Century Aluminum news, CEO Jesse E. Gary sold 29,243 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.97, for a total value of $554,739.71. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 50,753 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $962,784.41. The trade was a 36.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Robert F. Hoffman sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.99, for a total value of $49,975.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 64,083 shares in the company, valued at $1,281,019.17. The trade was a 3.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.68% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Century Aluminum

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Glencore plc bought a new position in shares of Century Aluminum during the 4th quarter worth about $729,427,000. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC raised its stake in Century Aluminum by 1,607.1% during the 3rd quarter. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC now owns 22,849,097 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $370,841,000 after buying an additional 21,510,639 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Century Aluminum by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,937,970 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $53,531,000 after acquiring an additional 28,557 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its stake in Century Aluminum by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 2,067,234 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $37,665,000 after acquiring an additional 111,203 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Century Aluminum by 1.1% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,279,772 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $20,774,000 after acquiring an additional 13,486 shares during the period. 61.59% of the stock is currently 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.