Morgan Stanley Maintains Overweight on Alcoa

Morgan Stanley is out with its report today on Alcoa AA, maintaining Overweight. In a note to clients, Morgan Stanley writes, "Alcoa's 2Q revenues beat our estimate; earnings were in-line on cost pressure. Downstream contributed ~45% of earnings and alumina pricing remained above historical trend, benefitting from improving spot exposure. This supports our thesis on AA, our preferred defensive play." Morgan Stanley maintains a $22 PT on AA. At the time of posting, shares of AA were trading pre-market at $15.85, down 0.38% from Monday's close.