Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. Makes New Investment in Alcoa $AA

Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alcoa (NYSE:AA) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 8,986 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $478,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Mirabella Financial Services LLP boosted its stake in Alcoa by 12,233.1% during the third quarter. Mirabella Financial Services LLP now owns 40,082,462 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,318,312,000 after buying an additional 39,757,462 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Alcoa by 6.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,458,529 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $376,871,000 after buying an additional 721,063 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Alcoa by 13.5% during the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 11,118,560 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $365,710,000 after buying an additional 1,322,540 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alcoa by 5.5% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,655,655 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $389,621,000 after purchasing an additional 349,426 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in shares of Alcoa by 211.7% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 6,254,017 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $332,338,000 after purchasing an additional 4,247,559 shares during the last quarter.

Alcoa Price Performance

AA opened at $73.50 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $69.11 and its 200 day moving average price is $60.59. Alcoa has a 12-month low of $27.72 and a 12-month high of $84.38. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The firm has a market cap of $19.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.61 and a beta of 1.56.

Alcoa (NYSE:AA) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 16th. The industrial products company reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.60 by ($0.20). Alcoa had a return on equity of 12.57% and a net margin of 8.27%.The firm had revenue of $3.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.35 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.15 EPS. Alcoa’s revenue was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Alcoa will post 7.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Alcoa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 5th. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 19th were paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 19th. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. Alcoa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 10.13%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently commented on AA. Citigroup upped their price target on Alcoa from $54.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 16th. UBS Group raised Alcoa from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $75.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company set a $68.00 price target on Alcoa in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Alcoa from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered Alcoa from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $68.60.

Alcoa Company Profile

Alcoa Corporation is a global industry leader in the production and management of aluminum, offering an integrated value chain that spans bauxite mining, alumina refining, primary aluminum smelting and the fabrication of value-added products. The company’s operations are organized into segments that include raw material extraction, chemical processing and the manufacture of metal mill products and engineered solutions.

Alcoa’s product portfolio serves diverse end markets such as aerospace, automotive, packaging, construction, electrical and industrial applications.