Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) Upgraded at StockNews.com

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

Separately, BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Century Aluminum from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, February 24th.

Century Aluminum Stock Performance

CENX stock opened at $15.93 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.04 and a beta of 2.70. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $17.21 and a 200 day simple moving average of $19.10. Century Aluminum has a fifty-two week low of $11.40 and a fifty-two week high of $25.39. The company has a quick ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 1.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71.

Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The industrial products company reported $0.28 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by ($0.25). Century Aluminum had a net margin of 14.69% and a return on equity of 13.38%. The business had revenue of $633.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $643.80 million. Sell-side analysts predict that Century Aluminum will post 2.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Century Aluminum news, CAO Robert F. Hoffman sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.99, for a total transaction of $49,975.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.76% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Century Aluminum

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Alberta Investment Management Corp bought a new stake in Century Aluminum during the 1st quarter worth about $4,918,000. Monaco Asset Management SAM bought a new stake in Century Aluminum during the 1st quarter worth about $2,552,000. GSA Capital Partners LLP bought a new stake in Century Aluminum during the 1st quarter worth about $1,798,000. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its position in shares of Century Aluminum by 30.0% during the 1st quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 22,441 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $417,000 after buying an additional 5,182 shares during the period. Finally, Bastion Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Century Aluminum during the 1st quarter worth about $2,998,000. 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.