Topic: Growth Stocks

Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline – Friday, July 12, 2013

Article Excerpt

ALCOA INC., $8.10, New York symbol AA, is closing smelters and cutting costs in response to declining aluminum prices. It also continues to expand its more profitable engineered-products business, which makes wings, fasteners and other components for the aerospace and automotive industries. In the three months ended June 30, 2013, Alcoa lost $119 million, or $0.11 a share. That’s much worse than the $2 million, or nil per share, it lost a year earlier. If you exclude plant-closure costs and other unusual items, Alcoa’s earnings per share would have risen 16.7%, to $0.07 from $0.06. On that basis, the latest earnings beat the consensus estimate of $0.06 a share. Revenue fell 1.9%, to $5.85 billion from $6.0 billion, but still matched the consensus estimate. Aluminum shipments declined 2.8%, while average prices fell 4.0%. The company still feels that global aluminum demand will rise 7% for all of 2013, up from a 6% rise in 2012. That should help stabilize aluminum prices. Alcoa is still a..