Topic: Growth Stocks

The Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline – Friday, July 13, 2007

Article Excerpt

ALCOA INC. $47.35, New York symbol AA, jumped 10% after losing out in its attempt to buy Canadian aluminum producer Alcan Inc. Anglo-Australian mining company Rio Tinto Ltd. agreed to buy Alcan for $101 a share in cash. The Rio offer is about one third richer than Alcoa’s stock-and-cash offer for Alcan, recently worth roughly $77 per Alcan share. Alcoa has now dropped its Alcan offer. This makes it more likely that Alcoa will attract a takeover offer from some other big mining company, such as BHP Billiton. Alcoa earned $0.81 a share from continuing operations in the second quarter of 2007, down 4.7% from $0.85 a year earlier. The latest quarterly figure includes a $0.04 charge for the temporary shutdown of two facilities, and $0.02 in extra costs related to the Alcan bid. Revenue rose 3.9%, to a record $8.1 billion from $7.8 billion, thanks to higher aluminum prices and volumes. Regardless of whether anything comes of Alcoa’s takeover possibilities, we…