American Axle & Manufacturing (NYSE:AXL) Downgraded by StockNews.com to “Hold”

StockNews.com cut shares of American Axle & Manufacturing (NYSE:AXL) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Thursday.

Separately, UBS Group upgraded shares of American Axle & Manufacturing from a sell rating to a neutral rating and set a $7.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $7.70.

American Axle & Manufacturing Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:AXL opened at $7.36 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.55, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a current ratio of 1.67. The company has a market cap of $865.09 million, a PE ratio of -26.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 2.22. American Axle & Manufacturing has a 52 week low of $6.29 and a 52 week high of $9.55. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $7.43 and a 200 day simple moving average of $7.49.

American Axle & Manufacturing (NYSE:AXL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 16th. The auto parts company reported ($0.09) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.19) by $0.10. American Axle & Manufacturing had a negative net margin of 0.55% and a negative return on equity of 1.78%. The business had revenue of $1.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.42 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.07) EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that American Axle & Manufacturing will post 0.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Boston Partners acquired a new position in shares of American Axle & Manufacturing during the 3rd quarter worth $2,833,000. Barclays PLC grew its stake in American Axle & Manufacturing by 522.6% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,122,458 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $8,149,000 after buying an additional 942,186 shares during the last quarter. Mutual Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in American Axle & Manufacturing in the 4th quarter worth $1,451,000. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in American Axle & Manufacturing by 25.8% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 949,974 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $6,897,000 after purchasing an additional 194,863 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank grew its position in American Axle & Manufacturing by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 257,300 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $1,868,000 after purchasing an additional 2,900 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.41% of the company’s stock.

About American Axle & Manufacturing

American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, designs, engineers, and manufactures driveline and metal forming technologies that supports electric, hybrid, and internal combustion vehicles. It operates through two segments, Driveline and Metal Forming segments. The Driveline segment offers front and rear axles, driveshafts, differential assemblies, clutch modules, balance shaft systems, disconnecting driveline technology, and electric and hybrid driveline products and systems for light trucks, sport utility vehicles, crossover vehicles, passenger cars, and commercial vehicles.