Alcoa (AA) Competitors

Alcoa (NYSE:AA) and Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) are both industrial products companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, media sentiment, dividends, analyst recommendations, community ranking and risk.

Which has preferable earnings & valuation, AA or CENX?

Century Aluminum has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Alcoa. Alcoa is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Century Aluminum, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Alcoa	$11.00B	0.89	-$651M	-$1.76	-21.50
Century Aluminum	$2.10B	0.81	-$43.10M	$2.99	6.13

Do analysts rate AA or CENX?

Alcoa presently has a consensus price target of $46.73, suggesting a potential upside of 23.49%. Century Aluminum has a consensus price target of $23.00, suggesting a potential upside of 25.48%. Given Century Aluminum's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Century Aluminum is more favorable than Alcoa.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Alcoa	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.73
Century Aluminum	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.67

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of AA or CENX?

82.4% of Alcoa shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 61.6% of Century Aluminum shares are held by institutional investors. 1.1% of Alcoa shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of Century Aluminum shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media prefer AA or CENX?

In the previous week, Alcoa had 1 more articles in the media than Century Aluminum. MarketBeat recorded 14 mentions for Alcoa and 13 mentions for Century Aluminum. Century Aluminum's average media sentiment score of 0.96 beat Alcoa's score of 0.55 indicating that Century Aluminum is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Alcoa	6 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	7 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Century Aluminum	5 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more volatility and risk, AA or CENX?

Alcoa has a beta of 2.44, meaning that its stock price is 144% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Century Aluminum has a beta of 2.5, meaning that its stock price is 150% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Is AA or CENX more profitable?

Century Aluminum has a net margin of 14.60% compared to Alcoa's net margin of -2.65%. Century Aluminum's return on equity of 11.37% beat Alcoa's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Alcoa	-2.65%	-1.45%	-0.56%
Century Aluminum	14.60%	11.37%	3.29%

Does the MarketBeat Community favor AA or CENX?

Alcoa received 668 more outperform votes than Century Aluminum when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 66.73% of users gave Alcoa an outperform vote while only 50.63% of users gave Century Aluminum an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Alcoa	Outperform Votes 1029 66.73%	Underperform Votes 513 33.27%
Century Aluminum	Outperform Votes 361 50.63%	Underperform Votes 352 49.37%

Summary

Alcoa and Century Aluminum tied by winning 9 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.