American Axle & Manufacturing (NYSE:DCH) Shares Gap Up on Analyst Upgrade

Key Points

• TD Cowen upgraded American Axle & Manufacturing to “buy” from “hold”, raising its price target from $8 to $10. Shares opened at $7.37, up from a prior close of $6.99.
• Analyst sentiment remains mixed: four firms rate the stock a buy, four a hold and one a sell. The consensus rating is “Hold”, with an average price target of $10.14.
• The company beat quarterly earnings expectations, reporting $0.32 in EPS versus a $0.14 consensus, on revenue of $2.96 billion. However, it continues to carry high leverage, with a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.32 and a negative net margin.

American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:DCH - Get Free Report)'s share price gapped up prior to trading on Tuesday after TD Cowen upgraded the stock from a hold rating to a buy rating. The stock had previously closed at $6.99, but opened at $7.37. TD Cowen now has a $10.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $8.00. American Axle & Manufacturing shares last traded at $7.2050, with a volume of 522,836 shares trading hands.

A number of other research firms have also recently weighed in on DCH. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "sell (d)" rating on shares of American Axle & Manufacturing in a research report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on American Axle & Manufacturing from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on American Axle & Manufacturing from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, July 13th. Wall Street Zen cut American Axle & Manufacturing from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Sunday, May 17th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price objective on American Axle & Manufacturing from $9.50 to $9.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, American Axle & Manufacturing currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $10.14.

American Axle & Manufacturing Price Performance

The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $5.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.32, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.40. The firm has a market cap of $1.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.24 and a beta of 1.63.

American Axle & Manufacturing (NYSE:DCH - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 7th. The company reported $0.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.14 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $2.96 billion for the quarter. American Axle & Manufacturing had a positive return on equity of 15.94% and a negative net margin of 2.01%. As a group, analysts forecast that American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings, Inc. will post 0.96 earnings per share for the current year.

About American Axle & Manufacturing

American Axle & Manufacturing is a U.S.-based designer, engineer and manufacturer of driveline and drivetrain systems and components for the automotive and light- and heavy-vehicle markets. The company produces a range of mechanical and electromechanical products including axles, driveshafts, differential systems, halfshafts, transmission components, and related sealing and suspension parts. Its product portfolio serves passenger cars, light trucks, commercial vehicles and off-highway applications.

Beyond component manufacturing, the company provides integrated engineering services such as product development, testing and system integration to help vehicle manufacturers meet performance, weight and fuel-economy targets.

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