American Axle & Manufacturing (NYSE:AXL) Raised to “Strong-Buy” at Wall Street Zen

American Axle & Manufacturing (NYSE:AXL) was upgraded by research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued on Saturday.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on American Axle & Manufacturing from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 20th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of American Axle & Manufacturing in a research report on Monday, December 15th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of American Axle & Manufacturing from $7.50 to $8.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada upgraded shares of American Axle & Manufacturing from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $6.00 to $8.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $7.00 target price on shares of American Axle & Manufacturing in a report on Monday, December 8th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, American Axle & Manufacturing presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $7.08.

American Axle & Manufacturing Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of NYSE:AXL opened at $6.65 on Friday. American Axle & Manufacturing has a 12-month low of $3.00 and a 12-month high of $6.82. The business has a 50 day moving average of $6.25 and a 200-day moving average of $5.55. The company has a quick ratio of 1.43, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.61. The stock has a market cap of $789.36 million, a PE ratio of 20.15, a P/E/G ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 1.58.

American Axle & Manufacturing (NYSE:AXL) last announced its earnings results on Friday, November 7th. The auto parts company reported $0.16 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.52 billion. American Axle & Manufacturing had a return on equity of 7.92% and a net margin of 0.72%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.20 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that American Axle & Manufacturing will post 0.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of American Axle & Manufacturing

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS increased its stake in American Axle & Manufacturing by 8.0% in the second quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 30,381 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $124,000 after acquiring an additional 2,243 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio boosted its holdings in shares of American Axle & Manufacturing by 2.2% in the 2nd quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 113,950 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $465,000 after purchasing an additional 2,473 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its holdings in shares of American Axle & Manufacturing by 7.4% in the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 43,524 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $178,000 after purchasing an additional 2,993 shares in the last quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. increased its stake in shares of American Axle & Manufacturing by 267.7% in the 3rd quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 4,383 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 3,191 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SummerHaven Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of American Axle & Manufacturing by 3.6% during the 2nd quarter. SummerHaven Investment Management LLC now owns 118,944 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $485,000 after buying an additional 4,154 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.41% of the company’s stock.

American Axle & Manufacturing Company Profile

American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings, Inc (NYSE: AXL) is a global designer, engineer and manufacturer of driveline and drivetrain systems and components for light vehicles, commercial trucks and off-highway applications. The company’s core product portfolio includes axles, driveshafts, half-shafts, drive module assemblies and differential gears, as well as advanced metallic and composite structures for electric and hybrid vehicles. AAM’s capabilities also encompass system testing, rapid prototyping and precision machining to support both high-volume production and low-volume, specialty vehicle applications.

Founded in 1994 following the divestiture of the Detroit Axle Division of General Motors, American Axle & Manufacturing completed its initial public offering in 1998.