Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) Shares Gap Up – Time to Buy?

Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) shares gapped up prior to trading on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $17.38, but opened at $18.31. Century Aluminum shares last traded at $18.62, with a volume of 716,885 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on CENX shares. B. Riley boosted 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. Wolfe Research upgraded Century Aluminum from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $27.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. StockNews.com upgraded Century Aluminum from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 9th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upgraded Century Aluminum from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday.

Century Aluminum Stock Up 8.7 %

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’s 50-day moving average price is $19.27 and its 200 day moving average price is $18.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 2.50.

Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The industrial products company reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $631.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $515.27 million. Century Aluminum had a return on equity of 13.38% and a net margin of 14.69%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.39 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Century Aluminum will post 2.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Century Aluminum news, CEO Jesse E. Gary sold 29,243 shares of Century Aluminum stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.97, for a total value of $554,739.71. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 50,753 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $962,784.41. The trade was a 36.56 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.68% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Glencore plc purchased a new position in shares of Century Aluminum in the 4th quarter worth approximately $729,427,000. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Century Aluminum by 1,607.1% in the 3rd quarter. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC now owns 22,849,097 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $370,841,000 after acquiring an additional 21,510,639 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Century Aluminum by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,937,970 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $53,531,000 after purchasing an additional 28,557 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its position in Century Aluminum by 5.7% in the 4th quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 2,067,234 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $37,665,000 after purchasing an additional 111,203 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Century Aluminum by 1.1% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,279,772 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $20,774,000 after buying an additional 13,486 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 61.59% of the company’s stock.

Century Aluminum Company Profile

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.