Alcoa (NYSE:AA) Trading 7.2% Higher – What’s Next?

Alcoa (NYSE:AA) shares traded up 7.2% during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $65.65 and last traded at $65.7150. 4,551,436 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 43% from the average session volume of 8,039,121 shares. The stock had previously closed at $61.31.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Alcoa from $71.00 to $64.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Alcoa from $42.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 19th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Alcoa from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $52.00 target price on shares of Alcoa in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Alcoa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 21st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $44.45.

Alcoa Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $17.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.00 and a beta of 1.85. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $60.87 and its 200-day simple moving average is $46.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 1.44.

Alcoa (NYSE:AA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 22nd. The industrial products company reported $1.26 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.31. The business had revenue of $6.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.28 billion. Alcoa had a net margin of 9.12% and a return on equity of 16.19%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.04 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Alcoa will post 4.43 EPS for the current year.

Alcoa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be paid a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 10th. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.6%. Alcoa’s dividend payout ratio is 9.05%.

Institutional Trading of Alcoa

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Mirabella Financial Services LLP increased its position in shares of Alcoa by 12,233.1% during the third quarter. Mirabella Financial Services LLP now owns 40,082,462 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,318,312,000 after acquiring an additional 39,757,462 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Alcoa by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 11,580,803 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $615,428,000 after acquiring an additional 462,243 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Alcoa by 6.7% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,458,529 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $376,871,000 after purchasing an additional 721,063 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Alcoa by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,655,655 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $389,621,000 after purchasing an additional 349,426 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in Alcoa by 211.7% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 6,254,017 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $332,338,000 after purchasing an additional 4,247,559 shares in the last quarter.

Alcoa Company Profile

Alcoa Corporation is a global industry leader in the production and management of aluminum, offering an integrated value chain that spans bauxite mining, alumina refining, primary aluminum smelting and the fabrication of value-added products. The company’s operations are organized into segments that include raw material extraction, chemical processing and the manufacture of metal mill products and engineered solutions.

Alcoa’s product portfolio serves diverse end markets such as aerospace, automotive, packaging, construction, electrical and industrial applications.