Morgan Stanley (NYSE:) analyst Carlos De Alba made a series of rating changes in the firms coverage of the Americas Metals & Mining sector.

De Alba stated that the time has come to exit the game after a remarkable rise in commodity shares over the past months due to rising inflation and geopolitical conflict.

Analyst downgraded Alcoa (NYSE): From Overweight To Equal Weight With a $78.00 share price target (down $100.00 from prior). He sees very few positive company catalysts in near future.

Alcoa is taking steps to increase its cash flow and improve profitability by reviewing its assets portfolio. It’s well-positioned to take advantage of a positive outlook on aluminum because there has been a tightening in global supply. De Alba stated in a client letter that these positive developments are already in Alcoa’s price, despite the stock’s outperformance.

Also, Southern Copper Corp (NYSE 🙂 was also reduced to Equal Weight from Underweight by the analyst with a price target of $55.00 per share, down $63.00

We believe the company’s challenging production outlook, rising costs, and ongoing protest activities in Peru ” which resulted in the stoppage of the company’s Cuajone mine ” will weigh on the stocks investment case. We see downside to our new price target following the shares’ recent performance ” the stock is up ~15% YTD, relatively in line with other major pure names and outperforming copper ” and despite our commodities teams higher copper price forecasts now in our SCCO estimates.

Shares in SCCO and AA have increased 56% and 26% YTD.

By Senad Karaahmetovic