JPMorgan Chase & Co. Acquires 319,164 Shares of Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) by 49.9% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 959,033 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 319,164 shares during the quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. owned 1.03% of Century Aluminum worth $15,565,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Aristeia Capital L.L.C. bought a new stake in shares of Century Aluminum in the second quarter worth $681,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Century Aluminum by 17.0% in 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. Barclays PLC lifted its position in shares of Century Aluminum by 266.5% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 97,396 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,581,000 after purchasing an additional 70,825 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new stake in shares of Century Aluminum in the third quarter worth $475,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in shares of Century Aluminum by 16.9% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 621,300 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $10,084,000 after purchasing an additional 89,621 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 61.59% of the company’s stock.

Century Aluminum Price Performance

Shares of CENX opened at $19.32 on Friday. Century Aluminum has a 1-year low of $9.65 and a 1-year high of $25.39. The company has a market cap of $1.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.46 and a beta of 2.53. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $20.79 and its 200 day simple moving average is $17.47. The company has a current ratio of 1.71, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71.

Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The industrial products company reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.31. Century Aluminum had a net margin of 14.60% and a return on equity of 11.37%. The firm had revenue of $539.10 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $587.10 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.13) earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Century Aluminum will post 0.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Century Aluminum

In other Century Aluminum news, CEO Jesse E. Gary sold 29,243 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.97, for a total value of $554,739.71. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 50,753 shares in the company, valued at $962,784.41. The trade was a 36.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.68% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CENX has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. B. Riley boosted their target price on shares of Century Aluminum from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Century Aluminum from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $27.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Century Aluminum from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, November 9th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Century Aluminum from $16.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th.

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.