Alcoa (AA) Competitors

Alcoa (NYSE:AA) and Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) are both industrial products companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, risk, community ranking, media sentiment and profitability.

Which has more volatility and risk, AA or CENX?

Alcoa has a beta of 2.47, meaning that its share price is 147% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Century Aluminum has a beta of 2.71, meaning that its share price is 171% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has preferable earnings and valuation, AA or CENX?

Century Aluminum has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Alcoa. Century Aluminum is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Alcoa, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Alcoa	$10.48B	0.63	-$651M	-$3.76	-9.81
Century Aluminum	$2.19B	0.76	-$43.10M	-$0.50	-35.94

Is AA or CENX more profitable?

Century Aluminum has a net margin of -2.05% compared to Alcoa's net margin of -6.41%. Century Aluminum's return on equity of 5.18% beat Alcoa's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Alcoa	-6.41%	-8.51%	-3.60%
Century Aluminum	-2.05%	5.18%	1.15%

Do insiders & institutionals have more ownership in AA or CENX?

82.4% of Alcoa shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 61.6% of Century Aluminum shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.1% of Alcoa shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.8% of Century Aluminum shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer AA or CENX?

Alcoa received 659 more outperform votes than Century Aluminum when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 67.04% of users gave Alcoa an outperform vote while only 51.14% of users gave Century Aluminum an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Alcoa	Outperform Votes 1017 67.04%	Underperform Votes 500 32.96%
Century Aluminum	Outperform Votes 358 51.14%	Underperform Votes 342 48.86%

Does the media prefer AA or CENX?

In the previous week, Alcoa had 9 more articles in the media than Century Aluminum. MarketBeat recorded 14 mentions for Alcoa and 5 mentions for Century Aluminum. Century Aluminum's average media sentiment score of 1.01 beat Alcoa's score of 0.57 indicating that Century Aluminum is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Alcoa	4 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Century Aluminum	4 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do analysts rate AA or CENX?

Alcoa currently has a consensus target price of $33.54, indicating a potential downside of 9.05%. Century Aluminum has a consensus target price of $10.67, indicating a potential downside of 40.64%. Given Alcoa's higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Alcoa is more favorable than Century Aluminum.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Alcoa	2 Sell rating(s)	8 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.08
Century Aluminum	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33

Summary

Alcoa and Century Aluminum tied by winning 9 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.