American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:AXL) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:AXL) saw a significant increase in short interest during the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,030,000 shares, an increase of 13.3% from the October 31st total of 4,440,000 shares. Currently, 4.5% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 1,630,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.1 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On American Axle & Manufacturing

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. grew its stake in American Axle & Manufacturing by 31.8% in the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 2,273,917 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $14,053,000 after acquiring an additional 548,860 shares during the period. Algert Global LLC grew its position in shares of American Axle & Manufacturing by 263.9% in the 2nd quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 698,364 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $4,882,000 after purchasing an additional 506,476 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in American Axle & Manufacturing by 16.1% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,889,357 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $20,197,000 after purchasing an additional 399,616 shares in the last quarter. Whitebox Advisors LLC raised its holdings in American Axle & Manufacturing by 38.0% during the 3rd quarter. Whitebox Advisors LLC now owns 1,415,173 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $8,746,000 after buying an additional 389,760 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in American Axle & Manufacturing by 2.9% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,268,651 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $57,797,000 after buying an additional 236,423 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on AXL. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of American Axle & Manufacturing from $7.00 to $7.50 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Wolfe Research raised American Axle & Manufacturing to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $6.00 price target on shares of American Axle & Manufacturing in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $7.38.

American Axle & Manufacturing Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of American Axle & Manufacturing stock traded down $0.06 on Tuesday, hitting $6.77. 994,659 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,730,960. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $6.25 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $6.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.28, a current ratio of 1.65 and a quick ratio of 1.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $796.02 million, a PE ratio of 28.21 and a beta of 1.95. American Axle & Manufacturing has a one year low of $5.43 and a one year high of $8.99.

American Axle & Manufacturing (NYSE:AXL) last released its earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The auto parts company reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.05) by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $1.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.51 billion. American Axle & Manufacturing had a return on equity of 9.63% and a net margin of 0.48%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.11) earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that American Axle & Manufacturing will post 0.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About American Axle & Manufacturing

American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, designs, engineers, and manufactures driveline and metal forming technologies that supports electric, hybrid, and internal combustion vehicles. It operates through two segments, Driveline and Metal Forming segments. The Driveline segment offers front and rear axles, driveshafts, differential assemblies, clutch modules, balance shaft systems, disconnecting driveline technology, and electric and hybrid driveline products and systems for light trucks, sport utility vehicles, crossover vehicles, passenger cars, and commercial vehicles.