Alcoa Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:AA)

Alcoa Co. (NYSE:AA - Get Free Report) saw some unusual options trading on Friday. Stock traders acquired 26,402 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 56% compared to the average volume of 16,919 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wolfe Research upgraded Alcoa from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $36.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Alcoa from $48.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Alcoa from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Alcoa from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, B. Riley upgraded shares of Alcoa from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their target price for the stock from $41.00 to $50.00 in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alcoa presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $45.25.

Alcoa Price Performance

Shares of Alcoa stock traded down $3.68 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $42.49. The company's stock had a trading volume of 9,526,611 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,127,927. Alcoa has a 1-year low of $23.80 and a 1-year high of $47.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 1.41. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $42.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $38.40.

Alcoa (NYSE:AA - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The industrial products company reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.34. The company had revenue of $2.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.97 billion. Alcoa had a negative return on equity of 1.45% and a negative net margin of 2.65%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 11.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted ($1.14) EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Alcoa will post 0.9 EPS for the current year.

Alcoa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 29th were paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 29th. Alcoa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -22.73%.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Renato Bacchi sold 23,867 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.29, for a total value of $1,009,335.43. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 57,317 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,423,935.93. This represents a 29.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Cetera Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Alcoa by 24.0% in the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 10,831 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $366,000 after purchasing an additional 2,096 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alcoa by 19.5% during the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,651 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $145,000 after acquiring an additional 596 shares during the last quarter. U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Alcoa in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $706,000. QRG Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Alcoa in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $255,000. Finally, Sendero Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Alcoa during the second quarter worth approximately $698,000.

About Alcoa

Alcoa Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, produces and sells bauxite, alumina, and aluminum products in the United States, Spain, Australia, Iceland, Norway, Brazil, Canada, and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Alumina and Aluminum. It engages in bauxite mining operations; and processes bauxite into alumina and sells it to customers who process it into industrial chemical products, as well as aluminum smelting and casting businesses.