Boston Partners Acquires 909,656 Shares of Century Aluminum Company $CENX

Boston Partners increased its stake in Century Aluminum Company (NASDAQ:CENX) by 230.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,303,580 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 909,656 shares during the period. Boston Partners owned approximately 1.40% of Century Aluminum worth $23,498,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of CENX. Woodline Partners LP purchased a new stake in shares of Century Aluminum during the 1st quarter valued at $19,317,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Century Aluminum in the first quarter valued at $14,726,000. Encompass Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in Century Aluminum in the first quarter valued at $13,920,000. Foundry Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Century Aluminum during the first quarter valued at about $6,077,000. Finally, Park West Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Century Aluminum during the first quarter worth about $5,740,000. 61.59% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Agust F. Hafberg sold 9,493 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.91, for a total transaction of $264,949.63. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 55,260 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,542,306.60. The trade was a 14.66% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.76% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CENX has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Century Aluminum from $30.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 7th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Century Aluminum from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, August 3rd. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Century Aluminum in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Century Aluminum from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered Century Aluminum from a “strong-buy” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $31.50.

Century Aluminum Stock Performance

Century Aluminum stock opened at $29.04 on Friday. Century Aluminum Company has a fifty-two week low of $13.05 and a fifty-two week high of $34.51. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $28.74 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $22.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a current ratio of 1.75. The stock has a market cap of $2.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.03 and a beta of 2.51.

Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The industrial products company reported $0.56 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by ($0.23). Century Aluminum had a net margin of 4.94% and a return on equity of 18.02%. The firm had revenue of $632.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $629.85 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.63 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Century Aluminum Company will post 2.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Century Aluminum

Century Aluminum Company, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the production of standard-grade and value-added primary aluminum products in the United States and Iceland. It also owns and operates an alumina production facility in Iceland, and a carbon anode production facility in the Netherlands.