Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) Shares Gap Down to $18.96

Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX)’s share price gapped down before the market opened on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $18.96, but opened at $18.36. Century Aluminum shares last traded at $18.15, with a volume of 237,897 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Century Aluminum from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. StockNews.com downgraded Century Aluminum from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd.

Century Aluminum Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $1.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.14 and a beta of 2.67. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $16.19 and a 200-day simple moving average of $12.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 1.67 and a quick ratio of 0.63.

Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The industrial products company reported ($0.39) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.19) by ($0.20). Century Aluminum had a net margin of 10.72% and a return on equity of 4.27%. The company had revenue of $489.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $520.30 million. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Century Aluminum will post 3.1 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Century Aluminum

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CENX. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its position in shares of Century Aluminum by 34.5% in the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 11,309 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $81,000 after buying an additional 2,899 shares in the last quarter. Strs Ohio increased its position in shares of Century Aluminum by 625.0% during the third quarter. Strs Ohio now owns 8,700 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $62,000 after purchasing an additional 7,500 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position in shares of Century Aluminum by 35.9% during the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 9,107 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $65,000 after purchasing an additional 2,405 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Century Aluminum by 8.4% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 173,863 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,250,000 after purchasing an additional 13,442 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of Century Aluminum by 255.6% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 350,739 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,522,000 after purchasing an additional 252,095 shares in the last quarter. 61.59% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.