Alto Ingredients (NASDAQ:ALTO) Upgraded to Strong-Buy at Benchmark

Benchmark upgraded shares of Alto Ingredients (NASDAQ:ALTO) to a strong-buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Zacks reports.

ALTO has been the subject of several other research reports. Scotiabank set a $10.00 target price on shares of Alto Ingredients in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Alto Ingredients in a research report on Friday, July 31st. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alto Ingredients in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of Alto Ingredients from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, July 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $10.00.

Alto Ingredients Price Performance

Shares of ALTO opened at $3.69 on Wednesday. Alto Ingredients has a 52 week low of $0.99 and a 52 week high of $6.11. The company has a current ratio of 3.19, a quick ratio of 2.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The firm has a market cap of $286.23 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.51 and a beta of 0.16. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $4.18 and a 200-day moving average of $4.76.

Alto Ingredients (NASDAQ:ALTO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.08 by $0.07. Alto Ingredients had a return on equity of 18.54% and a net margin of 5.51%.The business had revenue of $245.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $231.24 million. As a group, analysts forecast that Alto Ingredients will post 0.39 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Gilbert Nathan bought 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 14th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $3.93 per share, with a total value of $39,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 866,393 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,404,924.49. This represents a 1.17% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 4.28% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alto Ingredients

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ALTO. WINTON GROUP Ltd grew its position in shares of Alto Ingredients by 33.8% during the second quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd now owns 24,075 shares of the company’s stock worth $137,000 after acquiring an additional 6,075 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in Alto Ingredients in the 2nd quarter valued at about $156,000. Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new position in Alto Ingredients during the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,527,000. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio acquired a new position in Alto Ingredients during the 2nd quarter valued at about $112,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in Alto Ingredients in the 2nd quarter worth about $243,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 42.44% of the company’s stock.

About Alto Ingredients

Alto Ingredients, Inc is a renewable fuels and specialty alcohols company that produces and markets low-carbon ethanol and related products. Its offerings are used as transportation fuel, fuel additives, industrial and beverage alcohol, and in other commercial applications.

The company also produces co-products from its ethanol manufacturing operations, including distillers grains used as animal feed and corn oil used in feed, fuel and industrial markets. Alto Ingredients has pursued opportunities to develop lower-carbon products and improve the value of its agricultural and renewable fuel operations.

Previously known as Pacific Ethanol, the company adopted the Alto Ingredients name in 2020 to reflect its broader focus beyond conventional ethanol production.