Wells Fargo & Company Cuts Alcoa (NYSE:AA) Price Target to $60.00

Alcoa (NYSE:AA) had its price target reduced by Wells Fargo & Company from $71.00 to $60.00 in a report published on Friday, MarketBeat reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the industrial products company’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also weighed in on AA. Zacks Research raised Alcoa from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 14th. B. Riley Financial cut their price target on shares of Alcoa from $92.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $70.00 price target on shares of Alcoa in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Alcoa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Finally, Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Alcoa from $57.00 to $51.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $60.09.

Alcoa Trading Down 0.1%

AA stock opened at $44.37 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The company has a market cap of $11.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.13, a PEG ratio of 0.50 and a beta of 1.63. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $48.34 and a 200-day simple moving average of $58.64. Alcoa has a 52 week low of $30.81 and a 52 week high of $84.38.

Alcoa (NYSE:AA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 16th. The industrial products company reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.25 by ($0.13). The firm had revenue of $3.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.99 billion. Alcoa had a net margin of 9.48% and a return on equity of 18.90%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.39 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Alcoa will post 6.52 EPS for the current year.

Alcoa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 27th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 11th were paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 11th. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. Alcoa’s payout ratio is 8.23%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alcoa news, EVP Tammi Jones sold 15,628 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.60, for a total value of $790,776.80. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 39,819 shares in the company, valued at $2,014,841.40. The trade was a 28.19% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Renato Bacchi sold 700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.02, for a total transaction of $35,714.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 74,930 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,822,928.60. The trade was a 0.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure.

Institutional Trading of Alcoa

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Alcoa during the 2nd quarter valued at $1,528,523,000. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Alcoa by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,655,655 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $389,621,000 after purchasing an additional 349,426 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in Alcoa by 211.7% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 6,254,017 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $332,338,000 after purchasing an additional 4,247,559 shares in the last quarter. Castle Hook Partners LP bought a new stake in Alcoa in the fourth quarter valued at about $210,874,000. Finally, Amundi increased its holdings in Alcoa by 47.8% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 2,009,013 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $133,258,000 after buying an additional 649,693 shares during the last quarter.

About Alcoa

Alcoa Corporation (NYSE:AA) is a global producer of bauxite, alumina and aluminum. Its operations span the aluminum value chain, including bauxite mining, alumina refining, aluminum smelting, casting and the production of select value-added aluminum products. The company serves customers in industries such as transportation, aerospace, construction, packaging, consumer products and energy.

Founded in 1888 as the Pittsburgh Reduction Company, Alcoa played a major role in developing the commercial aluminum industry and adopted the Alcoa name in 1907.