Stock Watchlist: AK Steel Holding Corporation (NYSE:AKS)

AK Steel (AKS) is Downgraded by BofA/Merrill to Underperform, according to the research report released to the investors. The company on October 22, issued a notice under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act to hourly and salaried employees at its Ashland, Kentucky Works that it intends to temporarily idle the blast furnace and related steelmaking operations at the facility as a result of challenging domestic market conditions. They now own 112.80 million shares or 0.52% less from 113.39 million shares in 2015Q1.

AK Steel Holding Corporation last posted quarterly earnings per share of $-0.28 on 2015-0-4-28 based on the quarter that ended on 2015-03-31. The stock, which has a 52-week range of $5.84 – $10.50, has gained 62.64% value year-to-date. The 50-day moving average is $2.7 and the 200 day moving average is recorded at $3.78. The company also managed to report a beat on earnings and revenue estimates; it reported a loss of $0.36 per share, which outperformed the consensus loss per share estimate of $0.39. This estimate is a consensus number consisting of figures provided by covering brokerage analysts. Finally, Citigroup Inc. reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of AK Steel Holding in a research report on Sunday, September 20th.

Bocage Capital Llc holds 6.89% of its portfolio in AK Steel Holding Corporation for 3.30 million shares.

For the current quarter, analysts are anticipating earnings around $-0.05 per share. A stock is given a rating between 1 and 5 where 1 represents a Strong Buy and 5 a Strong Sell. The company has total market capitalization of $18.73 billion and a total of 3.97 billion outstanding shares. The Insider information was disclosed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in a Form 4 filing. The company’s market cap is $473.04 million.

Shares of AK Steel Holding Corporation (NYSE:AKS) are down by -7.87% to $2.46 in pre-market trading on Monday. After opening at $2.47, the stock hit as high as $2.49.

AK Steel Holding Corporation (NYSE:AKS) is an integrated manufacturer of flat-rolled carbon, stainless and electrical steels and tubular products through its fully-owned subsidiary, AK Steel Corporation (AK Steel and, collectively with AK Holding, the Company). These activities produce flat-rolled carbon steels, including coated, cold-rolled and hot-rolled carbon steel products, and specialty stainless and electrical steels that are sold in sheet and strip form, as well as carbon and stainless steel that is finished into welded steel tubing. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. In September 2014, AK Steel completes acquisition of Severstal Dearborn.