Earnings Preview: Alcoa

Alcoa AA is set to kick off the third-quarter earnings season on Tuesday prior to the opening bell. Investors will be watching the aluminum company's results closely to try to get a read on how the cyclical sectors of the economy may have fared in the period. Wall Street analysts are projecting that Alcoa will report a per share profit of $0.01. This is well below the company's earnings per share of $0.15 in the year ago period. Analysts have a wide range of estimates for the quarter, with a low estimate calling for a loss of $0.10 and the high estimate being EPS of $0.11. Revenues in the period are expected to be $5.57 billion versus $6.42 billion in the year ago period. This implies a decline in sales for Alcoa of 13.20 percent. The low revenue estimate on Wall Street for the aluminum giant is $5.29 billion with a high estimate of $5.80 billion. Over the last 3 months, EPS estimates for Alcoa have plunged from $0.12 to the current consensus estimate of $0.01. During this time, the stock has actually risen a little more than 4 percent as the share price has been supported by a strong rally in U.S. equities. The 52-week range in the stock is $7.97-$11.66. Year-to-date, AA has notched a gain of around 5 percent. On Monday, ahead of Tuesday's key report, the stock was trading up 0.22 percent to $9.11.