Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) CEO Sells $554,739.71 in Stock

Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) CEO Jesse E. Gary sold 29,243 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.97, for a total transaction of $554,739.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 50,753 shares in the company, valued at $962,784.41. This represents a 36.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Century Aluminum Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of Century Aluminum stock opened at $18.22 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a current ratio of 1.71. The company has a market capitalization of $1.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.09 and a beta of 2.50. Century Aluminum has a 1 year low of $9.65 and a 1 year high of $25.39. The company’s fifty day moving average is $20.71 and its two-hundred day moving average is $17.36.

Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The industrial products company reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.31. Century Aluminum had a return on equity of 11.37% and a net margin of 14.60%. The firm had revenue of $539.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $587.10 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted ($0.13) earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Century Aluminum will post 0.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Century Aluminum

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CENX. Aristeia Capital L.L.C. acquired a new position in Century Aluminum in the 2nd quarter valued at $681,000. Barclays PLC increased its stake in shares of Century Aluminum by 266.5% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 97,396 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,581,000 after acquiring an additional 70,825 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in Century Aluminum by 17.0% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 301,992 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $4,901,000 after purchasing an additional 43,881 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in Century Aluminum in the third quarter valued at about $475,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in Century Aluminum by 16.9% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 621,300 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $10,084,000 after purchasing an additional 89,621 shares in the last quarter. 61.59% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on CENX. B. Riley increased their target price on shares of Century Aluminum from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Century Aluminum from $16.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. StockNews.com raised Century Aluminum from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, November 9th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Century Aluminum from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $27.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd.

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.