Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) Trading 11.7% Higher on Analyst Upgrade

Century Aluminum Company (NASDAQ:CENX) shares shot up 11.7% during trading on Friday after BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on the stock from $30.00 to $34.00. BMO Capital Markets currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Century Aluminum traded as high as $31.00 and last traded at $32.3780. 258,456 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 85% from the average session volume of 1,746,008 shares. The stock had previously closed at $28.98.

CENX has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Zacks Research downgraded Century Aluminum from a “strong-buy” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday. B. Riley raised their target price on shares of Century Aluminum from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Century Aluminum in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Century Aluminum from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Century Aluminum from $37.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $30.75.

Insider Activity at Century Aluminum

In other Century Aluminum news, SVP Matt Aboud sold 12,027 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.27, for a total value of $279,868.29. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 62,589 shares in the company, valued at $1,456,446.03. This trade represents a 16.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Agust F. Hafberg sold 9,493 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.91, for a total value of $264,949.63. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 55,260 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,542,306.60. This trade represents a 14.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Company insiders own 0.76% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Century Aluminum

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Teacher Retirement System of Texas lifted its holdings in Century Aluminum by 130.4% during the first quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 33,414 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $620,000 after buying an additional 18,909 shares during the period. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. purchased a new position in Century Aluminum in the second quarter valued at about $203,000. Aristeia Capital L.L.C. purchased a new stake in shares of Century Aluminum during the first quarter valued at about $408,000. Alberta Investment Management Corp purchased a new position in shares of Century Aluminum in the 1st quarter worth approximately $4,918,000. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund lifted its position in Century Aluminum by 21.3% during the first quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 359,867 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $6,679,000 after acquiring an additional 63,086 shares during the last quarter. 61.59% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Century Aluminum Trading Up 11.8%

The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $27.92 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $22.16. The company has a market capitalization of $3.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.21 and a beta of 2.51. The company has a quick ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66.

Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The industrial products company reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.79 by ($0.23). Century Aluminum had a net margin of 4.94% and a return on equity of 18.02%. The firm had revenue of $632.20 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $629.85 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.63 earnings per share. Century Aluminum’s revenue for the quarter was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Century Aluminum Company will post 2.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.