Morgan Stanley Upgrades Alcoa (NYSE:AA) to “Equal Weight”

Alcoa (NYSE:AA) was upgraded by research analysts at Morgan Stanley from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a report released on Monday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has a $36.50 price target on the industrial products company’s stock, up from their prior price target of $28.50. Morgan Stanley’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 1.25% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on AA. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Alcoa from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Alcoa from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. B. Riley boosted their price target on shares of Alcoa from $25.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Alcoa from $27.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Alcoa from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $33.54.

Alcoa Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE AA opened at $36.05 on Monday. Alcoa has a 1-year low of $23.07 and a 1-year high of $38.54. The company has a market cap of $6.47 billion, a PE ratio of -9.59, a P/E/G ratio of 4.28 and a beta of 2.47. The company has a current ratio of 1.61, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company has a 50-day moving average of $31.51 and a two-hundred day moving average of $29.22.

Alcoa (NYSE:AA) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The industrial products company reported ($0.81) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.62) by ($0.19). The company had revenue of $2.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.55 billion. Alcoa had a negative return on equity of 8.51% and a negative net margin of 6.41%. The company’s revenue was down 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.23) earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Alcoa will post 0.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Tammi A. Jones sold 26,468 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.78, for a total transaction of $814,685.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 41,166 shares in the company, valued at $1,267,089.48. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.08% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alcoa

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AA. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new stake in Alcoa during the third quarter worth $39,557,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Alcoa in the fourth quarter valued at about $45,730,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Alcoa by 34.4% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,312,340 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $146,626,000 after purchasing an additional 1,104,423 shares during the period. ARGA Investment Management LP raised its position in shares of Alcoa by 202.2% in the first quarter. ARGA Investment Management LP now owns 1,491,544 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $50,399,000 after purchasing an additional 997,912 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James & Associates raised its position in shares of Alcoa by 3,731.1% in the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 799,705 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $27,190,000 after purchasing an additional 778,831 shares during the period. 82.39% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Alcoa

Alcoa Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, produces and sells bauxite, alumina, and aluminum products in the United States, Spain, Australia, Iceland, Norway, Brazil, Canada, and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Alumina and Aluminum. It engages in bauxite mining operations; and processes bauxite into alumina and sells it to customers who process it into industrial chemical products, as well as aluminum smelting and casting businesses.