Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) Stock Rating Upgraded by Wells Fargo & Company

Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Wells Fargo & Company to a “strong-buy” rating in a report issued on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

CENX has been the subject of a number of other reports. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Century Aluminum in a research note on Friday, August 8th. B. Riley raised their target price on shares of Century Aluminum from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 9th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Century Aluminum from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 18th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Century Aluminum in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Century Aluminum from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, August 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $28.50.

Century Aluminum Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CENX opened at $31.32 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.00 and a beta of 2.52. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $24.60 and its 200 day simple moving average is $20.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 0.61. Century Aluminum has a fifty-two week low of $13.05 and a fifty-two week high of $32.40.

Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The industrial products company reported ($0.05) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by ($0.39). The firm had revenue of $628.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $606.10 million. Century Aluminum had a net margin of 4.94% and a return on equity of 18.02%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Century Aluminum will post 2.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Century Aluminum

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Century Aluminum

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Boston Partners grew its stake in shares of Century Aluminum by 340.1% in the second quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,733,668 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $31,248,000 after buying an additional 1,339,744 shares in the last quarter. Sourcerock Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Century Aluminum by 612.0% in the second quarter. Sourcerock Group LLC now owns 1,424,088 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $25,662,000 after buying an additional 1,224,088 shares in the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP bought a new position in shares of Century Aluminum in the first quarter valued at $19,317,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Century Aluminum in the first quarter valued at $14,726,000. Finally, Encompass Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Century Aluminum in the first quarter valued at $13,920,000. 61.59% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Century Aluminum Company Profile

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.