Alcoa (AA) - Get Report is set to announce second quarter earnings results after markets close Monday, with a consensus of analysts calling for an underwhelming earnings per share of 9 cents.

Furthermore, BMO Capital Markets analysts David Gagliano and Matt Cartoceti wrote Monday that the firm sees potential for Alcoa to be among the metals and mining sector players reporting the least encouraging outlooks for upcoming quarters.

BMO said overall it expects the second quarter earnings season to be less eventful than recent quarters for most of the U.S.-based miners as second and third quarter estimates appear "generally reasonable," most underlying prices stabilized during the second quarter and the strategic initiatives for many players are "well under way or known at this point."

Still, the firm sees Alcoa earnings coming in above consensus at 12 cents per share and predicts the company will report Ebitda near $730 million versus the consensus Ebitda estimate of $689 million. 

Investors are certain to be keeping an eye out for further information on Alcoa's previously announced company split, in which its mining, refining and smelting businesses will be separated from its manufactured-products operations in a tax-free spinoff.

But BMO expects little in the way of new information on the split, considering the company held a conference call to discuss the matter at the end of June. 

"While additional questions regarding the status of the split are likely during the [second quarter] results conference call, in our opinion it is unlikely there will be any meaningful changes to the official separation plans (capital structure, timing, etc.)," Gagliano and Cartoceti noted. 

TheStreet's founder Jim Cramer said Monday that there is a lot of questions looming over the planned split despite Alcoa's best efforts to clarify the structure as the spinoff is "very convoluted because there's a lot of debt, and we're still not really sure which debt goes where."

From Monday's earnings report, Cramer hopes to see an update on Alcoa's aerospace divisions this quarter after the company reported a "glitch" at on of the divisions last quarter.

Indeed, Alcoa lowered its full-year 2016 expectations for the largest downstream segment, which is highly-levered to the aerospace market, the Engineered Products and Solutions segment, in conjunction with poor first quarter earnings results.

The company reduced the segment's revenue target from $7.2 billion to between $6 billion and $6.2 billion, and the Ebitda margin target from 23% to 21-22%, implying annual Ebitda of $1.3 billion versus its previously estimated $1.6 billion, according to BMO. 

An improvement in that segment is key for Cramer, but in the end, he said, "until you see the split, you don't know whether this thing is going to trade on the price of aluminum or on the rest of the earnings," making Alcoa a bit of a push this earnings season.