Alto Ingredients (NASDAQ:ALTO) Lowered to “Buy” Rating by Wall Street Zen

Alto Ingredients (NASDAQ:ALTO) was downgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Sunday.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Zacks Research raised shares of Alto Ingredients from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Alto Ingredients in a report on Monday, December 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy”.

Alto Ingredients Price Performance

Shares of ALTO opened at $4.66 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $360.40 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.13 and a beta of 0.60. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $2.86 and a 200-day moving average of $2.12. The company has a current ratio of 3.56, a quick ratio of 2.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. Alto Ingredients has a 52 week low of $0.76 and a 52 week high of $4.89.

Alto Ingredients (NASDAQ:ALTO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 4th. The company reported $0.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $231.97 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $234.83 million. Alto Ingredients had a return on equity of 3.10% and a net margin of 1.45%. As a group, analysts forecast that Alto Ingredients will post -0.37 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Alto Ingredients

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ALTO. Marshall Wace LLP bought a new stake in shares of Alto Ingredients in the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,324,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in Alto Ingredients by 169.4% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 715,180 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,060,000 after buying an additional 449,697 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in Alto Ingredients by 2,967.5% during the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 369,513 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,064,000 after buying an additional 357,467 shares during the last quarter. Truffle Hound Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Alto Ingredients in the fourth quarter worth $864,000. Finally, Corsair Capital Management L.P. acquired a new stake in Alto Ingredients in the fourth quarter worth $721,000. Institutional investors own 42.44% of the company’s stock.

Alto Ingredients Company Profile

Alto Ingredients, Inc (NASDAQ: ALTO) is a diversified producer of alcohol-based products and specialty ingredients for industrial, food, beverage and personal care applications. The company’s core offering centers on ethanol produced for fuel markets, as well as an expanding portfolio of natural and organic alcohols, glycerin and other ingredient solutions. Alto’s product lines serve a range of end markets, including renewable fuels, confectionery, flavorings, cosmetics and sanitizers.

Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Alto Ingredients operates a network of production facilities across the United States.