Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) Hits New 12-Month High – Here’s Why

Shares of Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $25.39 and last traded at $23.94, with a volume of 1516966 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $22.68.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on CENX. Wolfe Research raised shares of Century Aluminum from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $27.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. B. Riley boosted their price objective on shares of Century Aluminum from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Century Aluminum from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, November 9th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Century Aluminum from $16.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th.

Century Aluminum Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $2.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.59 and a beta of 2.50. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $19.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $16.89. 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 released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The industrial products company reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.31. Century Aluminum had a net margin of 14.60% and a return on equity of 11.37%. The firm had revenue of $539.10 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $587.10 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.13) earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Century Aluminum will post 0.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Century Aluminum

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Century Aluminum by 1,607.1% in the third quarter. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC now owns 22,849,097 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $370,841,000 after acquiring an additional 21,510,639 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Century Aluminum by 0.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,819,805 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $89,567,000 after acquiring an additional 39,900 shares during the period. Encompass Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Century Aluminum by 1,208.7% in the second quarter. Encompass Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,401,638 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $23,477,000 after acquiring an additional 1,294,538 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Century Aluminum by 1.1% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,279,772 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $20,774,000 after purchasing an additional 13,486 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in Century Aluminum by 30.4% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,186,243 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $19,870,000 after purchasing an additional 276,304 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.