American Axle & Manufacturing (NYSE:AXL) Shares Gap Up – Here’s Why

American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:AXL)’s share price gapped up before the market opened on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $4.75, but opened at $5.32. American Axle & Manufacturing shares last traded at $5.13, with a volume of 1,799,325 shares.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Barclays cut their price target on shares of American Axle & Manufacturing from $8.00 to $7.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, American Axle & Manufacturing has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $7.30.

American Axle & Manufacturing Trading Up 8.1 %

The firm has a market cap of $603.77 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.40 and a beta of 1.94. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $5.73 and a 200-day moving average price of $6.08. The company has a current ratio of 1.65, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.28.

American Axle & Manufacturing (NYSE:AXL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 14th. The auto parts company reported ($0.06) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.06). The company had revenue of $1.38 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.39 billion. American Axle & Manufacturing had a return on equity of 9.63% and a net margin of 0.48%. American Axle & Manufacturing’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.09) earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings, Inc. will post 0.49 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of American Axle & Manufacturing

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AXL. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of American Axle & Manufacturing during the 3rd quarter worth about $218,000. Creative Planning purchased a new position in American Axle & Manufacturing during the third quarter worth approximately $80,000. Everence Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in American Axle & Manufacturing in the third quarter valued at approximately $89,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of American Axle & Manufacturing by 540.2% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 199,514 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $1,233,000 after buying an additional 168,348 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Highland Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of American Axle & Manufacturing by 10.8% during the 3rd quarter. Highland Capital Management LLC now owns 29,405 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $182,000 after buying an additional 2,868 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.41% of the company’s stock.

American Axle & Manufacturing Company Profile

American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings, Inc engages in the manufacture, engineering, design, and validation of driveline systems and related components. It operates through the Driveline and Metal Forming segments. The Driveline segment consists of axles, drive shafts, power transfer units, rear drive modules, and electric and hybrid driveline products and systems for light trucks, service utility vehicles, crossover vehicles, passenger cars, and commercial vehicles.