Alcoa to take staid approach to portfolio

Alcoa has a reputation for squeezing the most out of its assets. Current leadership is sticking to a conservative approach that optimizes its existing portfolio, while steadily improving the balance sheet. Alcoa’s presentations during both its most recent earnings call and investor day underscored these goals, while keeping the faith on the breakthrough technologies to eventually hit.

Buy side investors looking for exciting growth plays are not going to spend much time considering Alcoa, which they may see as boring. These analysts may instead be drawn to the storyline of Rio Tinto, which is exploring new smelters in Finland and India. Whether these projects materialize is one thing, the point is that Rio is looking at growth projects and not simply harvesting existing assets. But boring may be a good attribute in these volatile times, keeping your powder dry while waiting for unique value opportunities later in the cycle.