Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) Stock Price Up 6% - Time to Buy?

Key Points

• Shares of Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) rose 6% during trading, reaching a last traded price of $27.51, with a significant drop in trading volume.
• Analyst ratings for CENX vary, with BMO Capital maintaining an "outperform" rating while Wall Street Zen downgrades it to a "hold."
• In its recent earnings report, Century Aluminum missed earnings expectations, reporting a loss of ($0.05) per share, despite exceeding revenue forecasts with $628.10 million in revenue.

Shares of Century Aluminum Company (NASDAQ:CENX - Get Free Report) were up 6% during trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $27.31 and last traded at $27.51. Approximately 395,053 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 76% from the average daily volume of 1,669,953 shares. The stock had previously closed at $25.96.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CENX has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Century Aluminum from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Sunday, August 3rd. BMO Capital Markets reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Century Aluminum in a research note on Friday, August 8th. B. Riley boosted their price objective on Century Aluminum from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, September 9th. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of Century Aluminum from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, August 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and three have issued a Buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $25.67.

Century Aluminum Trading Up 9.1%

The company has a current ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.42 and a beta of 2.55. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $23.10 and a 200 day moving average price of $19.49.

Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The industrial products company reported ($0.05) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.34 by ($0.39). The company had revenue of $628.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $606.10 million. Century Aluminum had a net margin of 4.94% and a return on equity of 18.02%. On average, research analysts forecast that Century Aluminum Company will post 2.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Century Aluminum

In other news, SVP Matt Aboud sold 12,027 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.27, for a total transaction of $279,868.29. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 62,589 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,456,446.03. This represents a 16.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.76% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Century Aluminum by 13.2% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,665,546 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $66,053,000 after acquiring an additional 426,306 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners raised its holdings 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 worth $31,248,000 after buying an additional 1,339,744 shares during the last quarter. Sourcerock Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Century Aluminum by 612.0% during the second quarter. Sourcerock Group LLC now owns 1,424,088 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $25,662,000 after buying an additional 1,224,088 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Century Aluminum by 0.5% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,300,691 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $23,443,000 after buying an additional 6,397 shares during the period. Finally, Woodline Partners LP purchased a new stake in shares of Century Aluminum during the first quarter valued at $19,317,000. 61.59% of the stock is 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.

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