American Axle & Manufacturing Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:AXL)

American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:AXL) saw unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Stock investors acquired 15,950 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 1,051% compared to the average volume of 1,386 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on AXL shares. Morgan Stanley set a $7.00 price objective on American Axle & Manufacturing in a research note on Monday, December 8th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of American Axle & Manufacturing in a report on Monday, December 29th. UBS Group raised their price target on American Axle & Manufacturing from $8.50 to $10.50 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 14th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted 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. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of American Axle & Manufacturing from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, January 11th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $7.50.

American Axle & Manufacturing Stock Up 8.6%

NYSE:AXL opened at $8.40 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $997.32 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.46 and a beta of 1.58. American Axle & Manufacturing has a twelve month low of $3.00 and a twelve month high of $8.63. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.61. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $6.68 and a 200-day simple moving average of $6.00.

American Axle & Manufacturing (NYSE:AXL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 7th. The auto parts company reported $0.16 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by $0.04. American Axle & Manufacturing had a net margin of 0.72% and a return on equity of 7.92%. The firm had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.52 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.20 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that American Axle & Manufacturing will post 0.57 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of American Axle & Manufacturing

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. UBS Group AG grew its position in shares of American Axle & Manufacturing by 760.8% during the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 3,503,827 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $21,058,000 after buying an additional 3,096,778 shares in the last quarter. Highland Peak Capital LLC lifted its stake in American Axle & Manufacturing by 72.7% in the third quarter. Highland Peak Capital LLC now owns 4,909,688 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $29,507,000 after acquiring an additional 2,066,924 shares during the period. Woodline Partners LP bought a new position in American Axle & Manufacturing during the 3rd quarter worth about $11,470,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its position in American Axle & Manufacturing by 615.8% during the 2nd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,879,668 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $7,669,000 after purchasing an additional 1,617,069 shares during the period. Finally, Masters Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of American Axle & Manufacturing in the 3rd quarter valued at about $7,212,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.41% of the company’s stock.

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.