Alcoa to close inefficient smelter

Article Excerpt

ALCOA INC. $17 (New York symbol AA; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 1.2 billion; Market cap: $20.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.7; Dividend yield: 0.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.alcoa.com) continues to close older, inefficient smelters in response to weak aluminum prices. The company now plans to shut down its Portovesme smelter in Italy, which will cut Alcoa’s global smelting capacity by 4%. Severance payments and other costs will cut the company’s earnings by around $0.15 a share in the third quarter of 2014. To put that in context, Alcoa earned $0.18 a share before one-time items in the second quarter. Alcoa is a buy. buy…