Envestnet Asset Management Inc. has recently reduced its stake in Kaiser Aluminum Co. According to its most recent disclosure with the SEC, the firm sold 3,663 shares of the industrial products company’s stock during the fourth quarter. With this latest move, Envestnet now holds 50,374 shares of Kaiser Aluminum stock – which represents a 6.8% decrease in stake ownership.
Kaiser Aluminum Corp., on the other hand, is a leading manufacturer and seller of semi-fabricated specialty aluminum products that caters to diverse industries such as aerospace, general engineering, automotive, and custom industrial applications. The company boasts an impressive product range which includes plate, sheet, coil, hard alloy shapes, soft alloy extrusions, seamless and structural extruded drawn tubes as well as hard alloy rod, bar, wire and forge stock.
Furthermore,KALU opened today at $61.39 with market capitalization worth $980.83 million and has P/E ratio valued at -44.49 with a beta of 1.28- making it an attractive option for potential investors. The company also has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1:70 suggesting some degree of leverage financing but still managing to maintain good liquidity ratios- an important indicator for companies in this industry.
In terms of share price performance,Kaiser Aluminum Co.’s one-year low lies at $56.79 while its one-year high stands at $107.41 marking quite a bit of variance between its highest and lowest trading price points over this period.Furthermore,current investors should take note that presently KALU’s 50-day simple moving average is $67:06 whereas its 200-day simple moving average is $78:33 hence there has been some fluctuation within the market recently.
Given these developments,it remains uncertain what Envestnet’s motivation or long-term plans are relative to this shift towards smaller stakes,but many analysts maintain that reducing any exposure to a company with little to no profitability has only been observed lately in the recent bearish market environment. Despite these changes, Kaiser Aluminum’s diverse product offerings alongside its established reputation as an industry leader is expected to remain attractive for investors long-term looking at its current liquidity ratios and ability to finance debt obligations- factors which should help it weather the changing business cycles.
[bs_forecast_slider ticker=”KALU”]
Kaiser Aluminum Corp. sees changes in holdings from institutional investors and hedge funds.
Kaiser Aluminum Corp., a manufacturing company dedicated to creating and distributing high-quality semi-fabricated specialty aluminum products, has been experiencing changes in its holdings from institutional investors and hedge funds. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd, Captrust Financial Advisors, National Bank of Canada FI, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio and Zurcher Kantonal bank Zurich Cantonalbank have all made recent purchases of Kaiser Aluminum’s shares.
Captrust Financial Advisors saw a significant increase in their holdings by 76.1% during the first quarter as they purchased an additional 439 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio also incremented their holdings by 14.2%, buying an additional 206 shares for its portfolio during Q3.
Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased their stake in the industrial products company’s stock by 57.4% over the same period. Overall, hedge funds and other institutional investors own approximately 99.65% of the company’s stock.
Several research firms have weighed in on Kaiser Aluminum and given a variety of opinions regarding the current state-of-play for investors.
StockNews.com issued a ‘sell’ rating for Kaiser Aluminum while The Goldman Sachs Group analysts dropped their target price on KALU from $80.00 to $70.00 with another “sell” rating recommendation on February 27th earlier this year.
On May 8th JPMorgan Chase & Co., assumed coverage on Kaiser Aluminum with a ‘neutral’ rating coupled with a $69 target price for the company – while Wolfe Research lowered shares from “peer perform” to “underperform”, setting a $67 price target back on April 12th.
Despite three analysts giving sell ratings, Benchmark gave KALU a $84 price objective and referred to Eaton Vance’s (EV) publication about estate planning tips which mentioned the case study use of KALUs Covered Call Fund (EINCX), adding a “buy” rating for the company. Bloomberg reported that the average rating of the stock is ‘hold’ with an average target price of $72.50.
Kaiser Aluminum announced its earnings report on April 27th and reported earnings per share of $0.42, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.16) by $0.58 while generating revenue worth $808.00 million during the first quarter, compared to an estimated $810.25 million.
Despite a negative net margin of 0.65% and negative return on equity of 3.35%, there was a drop in quarterly revenue amounting to 14.9% as compared to last year’s figures from Q1 while in last year’s Q1, the firm recorded $0.66 earnings per share.
In addition, Kaiser Aluminum paid a quarterly dividend on May 15th to investors who held shares until Tuesday, April 25th paying a dividend of $0.77 per share representing an annualized dividend yield of 5.02%. The company set an ex-dividend date for April 24th.
Overall, despite financial difficulties presenting themselves during this past quarter results announcement by Kaiser Aluminum, several institutional investors believe that there is value still existing within this often overlooked sector leading them to add purchases to their portfolios in response as they anticipate growth from Kaiser Aluminum’s future sales performance.
