American Axle & Manufacturing (NYSE:AXL) Stock Rating Upgraded by Wall Street Zen

American Axle & Manufacturing (NYSE:AXL) was upgraded by research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report released on Sunday.

A number of other analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group boosted their target price on American Axle & Manufacturing from $7.50 to $8.50 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of American Axle & Manufacturing from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of American Axle & Manufacturing in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $7.00 price target on American Axle & Manufacturing in a report on Monday, December 8th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, American Axle & Manufacturing currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $7.08.

American Axle & Manufacturing Trading Down 1.3%

AXL stock opened at $7.73 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.43, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.61. The company has a market cap of $917.19 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.42 and a beta of 1.58. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $6.47 and a 200-day simple moving average of $5.83. American Axle & Manufacturing has a 52 week low of $3.00 and a 52 week high of $7.86.

American Axle & Manufacturing (NYSE:AXL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 7th. The auto parts company reported $0.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $1.51 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.52 billion. American Axle & Manufacturing had a return on equity of 7.92% and a net margin of 0.72%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.20 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that American Axle & Manufacturing will post 0.57 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On American Axle & Manufacturing

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AXL. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC bought a new position in shares of American Axle & Manufacturing during the second quarter worth about $120,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in American Axle & Manufacturing by 24.4% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,490,388 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $6,066,000 after buying an additional 291,908 shares in the last quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of American Axle & Manufacturing by 128.4% in the 1st quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 290,241 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $1,181,000 after acquiring an additional 163,179 shares in the last quarter. PSquared Asset Management AG grew its position in shares of American Axle & Manufacturing by 99.9% in the 2nd quarter. PSquared Asset Management AG now owns 369,395 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $1,507,000 after acquiring an additional 184,570 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AXQ Capital LP bought a new stake in shares of American Axle & Manufacturing in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $291,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.41% of the company’s stock.

About American Axle & Manufacturing

American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings, Inc (NYSE: AXL) is a global designer, engineer and manufacturer of driveline and drivetrain systems and components for light vehicles, commercial trucks and off-highway applications. The company’s core product portfolio includes axles, driveshafts, half-shafts, drive module assemblies and differential gears, as well as advanced metallic and composite structures for electric and hybrid vehicles. AAM’s capabilities also encompass system testing, rapid prototyping and precision machining to support both high-volume production and low-volume, specialty vehicle applications.

Founded in 1994 following the divestiture of the Detroit Axle Division of General Motors, American Axle & Manufacturing completed its initial public offering in 1998.