Bank of America Reiterates Underperform Rating on AK Steel Holding Following Below-Consensus Q2 EPS

In a report published Monday, Bank of America analyst Timna Tanners reiterated an Underperform rating and $3.25 price target on AK Steel Holding AKS.

In the report, Bank of America noted, “AK guided to Q2 EPS of a $0.33-$0.38 cent loss, which included an unexpected non-cash tax reserve loss. Consensus was a $0.12 loss and even the low end of the range was shy of the ex-item EPS forecast of $0.25-$0.30. Mgmt reiterated that a planned seven-day maintenance outage at Middletown hurt the quarter, and noted that pricing had improved late in Q2 with the recently announced price hikes. We expect AK can benefit from better pricing and volume near term as several of its integrated peers struggle with labor and operational challenges, but we expect pricing strength to be short lived as imports will be drawn to premium U.S. pricing. Mgmt said Q2 includes an $0.08/shr hit from a non-cash tax expense.”

AK Steel Holding closed on Friday at $3.63.