Alon USA Energy Inc. (ALJ) Announces Quarterly Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.16 EPS

Alon USA Energy Inc. (NYSE:ALJ) issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The company reported ($0.21) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.05) by $0.16. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.67 earnings per share. The company earned $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $883.85 million. The business’s revenue was down 22.5% compared to the same quarter last year.

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Zacks Investment Research cut Alon USA Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, July 21st. Barclays PLC raised Alon USA Energy from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $10.00 to $8.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 13th. Wells Fargo & Co. reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Alon USA Energy in a report on Sunday, July 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Alon USA Energy from $8.00 to $7.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, June 10th. Finally, TheStreet cut Alon USA Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, May 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and five have given a hold rating to the company’s stock. The company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $10.17.

Shares of Alon USA Energy (NYSE:ALJ) traded down 3.38% during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $6.57. The stock had a trading volume of 1,235,878 shares. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $6.60 and its 200-day moving average price is $9.32. Alon USA Energy has a 12-month low of $5.86 and a 12-month high of $23.29. The firm’s market cap is $461.02 million.

In other news, VP Michael Oster sold 47,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.19, for a total transaction of $384,930.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 62,300 shares in the company, valued at approximately $510,237. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jeff D. Morris sold 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.67, for a total value of $216,750.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 1,486,653 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,889,281.51. The disclosure for this sale can be found here.

Alon USA Energy, Inc is an independent refiner and marketer of petroleum products, operating primarily in the South Central, Southwestern and Western regions of the United States. The Company operates through three segments: refining and marketing, asphalt and retail. Its refineries produce petroleum products, including various grades of gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, petrochemicals, petrochemical feedstocks, asphalt and other petroleum-based products.