Aluminum giant Alcoa Inc. (AA: sentiment, chart, options) was slapped with a hefty price-target cut this morning. Barclays dropped its target from $20 to $12, and simultaneously lowered its 2008 earnings estimate from $1.70 per share to $1.37 per share. Additionally, Barclays now expects Alcoa to report a 2009 profit of 40 cents per share, down sharply from its prior forecast of $2.10 per share.

"With commodity prices low and downstream end markets continuing to rapidly deteriorate, it seems highly probable that results and, more importantly, the outlook provided will be fairly gloomy," noted the brokerage firm.

This bearish commentary has AA down about 2% this morning to trade at $9.39. The equity could be vulnerable to additional price-target cuts during the short term; Thomson Financial pegs the average 12-month price target at $15.62, a lofty premium of 63.2% to Tuesday's close.