Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) Trading Up 7% – Time to Buy?

Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX)’s share price rose 7% on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $18.18 and last traded at $17.75. Approximately 768,714 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 56% from the average daily volume of 1,734,434 shares. The stock had previously closed at $16.59.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on CENX. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Century Aluminum from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 24th. StockNews.com raised shares of Century Aluminum from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Century Aluminum from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $27.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd.

Century Aluminum Stock Performance

The company has a fifty day moving average price of $19.22 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $18.50. The firm has a market cap of $1.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.81 and a beta of 2.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 1.71 and a quick ratio of 0.56.

Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The industrial products company reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.42 by $0.05. Century Aluminum had a net margin of 14.69% and a return on equity of 13.38%. The company had revenue of $631.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $515.27 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.39 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Century Aluminum will post 2.76 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Century Aluminum news, CEO Jesse E. Gary sold 29,243 shares of Century Aluminum stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.97, for a total transaction of $554,739.71. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 50,753 shares in the company, valued at approximately $962,784.41. The trade was a 36.56 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.68% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Century Aluminum

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Century Aluminum in the 4th quarter worth about $39,000. AlphaQuest LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Century Aluminum by 2,889.3% during the 4th quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 2,511 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 2,427 shares in the last quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC bought a new stake in Century Aluminum during the 4th quarter worth approximately $54,000. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Century Aluminum by 159.2% in the 4th quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,256 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $59,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000 shares during the period. Finally, Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Century Aluminum in the third quarter valued at approximately $189,000. 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.