Alcoa Inc Stock Hold Recommendation Reiterated (AA)

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Alcoa (NYSE:AA) has been reiterated by TheStreet Ratings as a hold with a ratings score of C- . The company's strongest point has been its a solid financial position based on a variety of debt and liquidity measures that we have looked at. At the same time, however, we also find weaknesses including a generally disappointing performance in the stock itself, deteriorating net income and disappointing return on equity.

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Highlights from the ratings report include:

• AA, with its decline in revenue, underperformed when compared the industry average of 2.0%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly dropped by 9.4%. Weakness in the company's revenue seems to have hurt the bottom line, decreasing earnings per share.
• ALCOA INC has exprienced a steep decline in earnings per share in the most recent quarter in comparison to its performance from the same quarter a year ago. This company has reported somewhat volatile earnings recently. We feel it is likely to report a decline in earnings in the coming year. During the past fiscal year, ALCOA INC increased its bottom line by earning $0.52 versus $0.24 in the prior year. For the next year, the market is expecting a contraction of 42.1% in earnings ($0.30 versus $0.52).
• AA's debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70 is somewhat low overall, but it is high when compared to the industry average, implying that the management of the debt levels should be evaluated further. Despite the fact that AA's debt-to-equity ratio is mixed in its results, the company's quick ratio of 0.61 is low and demonstrates weak liquidity.
• The company, on the basis of change in net income from the same quarter one year ago, has significantly underperformed when compared to that of the S&P 500 and the Metals & Mining industry. The net income has significantly decreased by 100.6% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, falling from $322.00 million to -$2.00 million.
• Despite any intermediate fluctuations, we have only bad news to report on this stock's performance over the last year: it has tumbled by 45.73%, worse than the S&P 500's performance. Consistent with the plunge in the stock price, the company's earnings per share are down 100.00% compared to the year-earlier quarter. Although its share price is down sharply from a year ago, do not assume that it can now be tagged as cheap and attractive. The reality is that, based on its current price in relation to its earnings, AA is still more expensive than most of the other companies in its industry.

Alcoa, Inc. engages in the production and management of primary aluminum, fabricated aluminum, and alumina. The company operates in four segments: Alumina, Primary Metals, Flat-Rolled Products, and Engineered Products and Solutions. The company has a P/E ratio of 114.6, above the average metals & mining industry P/E ratio of 100.3and above the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. Alcoa has a market cap of $8.55 billion and is part of the basic materials sector and metals & mining industry. Shares are down 7.3% year to date as of the close of trading on Wednesday.

You can view the full Alcoa Ratings Report or get investment ideas from our investment research center.

--Written by a member of TheStreet Ratings Staff.

TheStreet ratings do not represent the views of TheStreet's staff or its contributors. Ratings are established by computer based on metrics for performance (which includes growth, stock performance, efficiency and valuation) and risk (volatility and solvency). Companies with poor cash flow or high debt levels tend to earn lower ratings in our model.

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