American Axle & Manufacturing (NYSE:AXL) Trading Up 7.8% – Here’s Why

American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:AXL)’s share price traded up 7.8% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $7.36 and last traded at $7.4350. Approximately 894,984 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 64% from the average session volume of 2,492,299 shares. The stock had previously closed at $6.90.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AXL has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of American Axle & Manufacturing from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 20th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of American Axle & Manufacturing from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, January 3rd. Morgan Stanley set a $7.00 price target on shares of American Axle & Manufacturing in a report on Monday, December 8th. UBS Group raised their price target on American Axle & Manufacturing from $7.50 to $8.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of American Axle & Manufacturing in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $7.08.

American Axle & Manufacturing Stock Performance

The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $6.45 and its 200-day moving average price is $5.79. The company has a market cap of $932.03 million, a P/E ratio of 23.79 and a beta of 1.58. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.61.

American Axle & Manufacturing (NYSE:AXL) last released its earnings results on Friday, November 7th. The auto parts company reported $0.16 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.52 billion. American Axle & Manufacturing had a return on equity of 7.92% and a net margin of 0.72%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.20 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings, Inc. will post 0.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC bought a new position in American Axle & Manufacturing during the 2nd quarter valued at about $120,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in American Axle & Manufacturing by 24.4% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,490,388 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $6,066,000 after buying an additional 291,908 shares during the last quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of American Axle & Manufacturing by 128.4% during the first quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 290,241 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $1,181,000 after buying an additional 163,179 shares in the last quarter. PSquared Asset Management AG raised its stake in shares of American Axle & Manufacturing by 99.9% in the second quarter. PSquared Asset Management AG now owns 369,395 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $1,507,000 after acquiring an additional 184,570 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AXQ Capital LP bought a new position in shares of American Axle & Manufacturing in the second quarter valued at approximately $291,000. 91.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

American Axle & Manufacturing Company Profile

American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings, Inc (NYSE: AXL) is a global designer, engineer and manufacturer of driveline and drivetrain systems and components for light vehicles, commercial trucks and off-highway applications. The company’s core product portfolio includes axles, driveshafts, half-shafts, drive module assemblies and differential gears, as well as advanced metallic and composite structures for electric and hybrid vehicles. AAM’s capabilities also encompass system testing, rapid prototyping and precision machining to support both high-volume production and low-volume, specialty vehicle applications.

Founded in 1994 following the divestiture of the Detroit Axle Division of General Motors, American Axle & Manufacturing completed its initial public offering in 1998.