Kaiser Aluminum (NASDAQ:KALU) Given Buy Rating at Benchmark

Benchmark reissued their buy rating on shares of Kaiser Aluminum (NASDAQ:KALU) in a report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. Benchmark currently has a $84.00 price target on the industrial products company’s stock.

KALU has been the subject of a number of other reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Kaiser Aluminum from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. UBS Group began coverage on Kaiser Aluminum in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. They issued a neutral rating and a $67.00 target price for the company. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $77.00.

Kaiser Aluminum Stock Performance

Shares of KALU opened at $89.49 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.68, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.72. The company has a market capitalization of $1.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.65 and a beta of 1.38. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $79.51 and a 200 day moving average of $69.30. Kaiser Aluminum has a 12 month low of $53.67 and a 12 month high of $95.56.

Kaiser Aluminum (NASDAQ:KALU) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The industrial products company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.34) by $0.94. Kaiser Aluminum had a return on equity of 8.32% and a net margin of 1.53%. The business had revenue of $722.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $716.01 million. During the same period last year, the business posted ($1.66) earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Kaiser Aluminum will post 3.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Kaiser Aluminum Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 25th will be given a $0.77 dividend. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.44%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 24th. Kaiser Aluminum’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 105.48%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Kaiser Aluminum

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BlackRock Inc. grew its position in shares of Kaiser Aluminum by 4.0% in the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 2,734,901 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $195,928,000 after purchasing an additional 104,632 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Kaiser Aluminum by 2.2% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,902,149 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $116,697,000 after purchasing an additional 40,795 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Kaiser Aluminum by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,383,255 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $105,072,000 after purchasing an additional 51,754 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Kaiser Aluminum by 30.6% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,132,280 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $106,615,000 after purchasing an additional 265,426 shares in the last quarter. 99.29% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Kaiser Aluminum

Kaiser Aluminum Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in manufacture and sale of semi-fabricated specialty aluminum mill products in the United States and internationally. It offers rolled, extruded, and drawn aluminum products used for aerospace and defense, aluminum beverage and food packaging, automotive and general engineering products.