$6.93 Earnings Per Share Expected for Nucor Co. (NYSE:NUE) This Quarter

Brokerages expect Nucor Co. (NYSE:NUE – Get Rating) to announce earnings of $6.93 per share for the current fiscal quarter, Zacks Investment Research reports. Four analysts have provided estimates for Nucor’s earnings. The lowest EPS estimate is $5.49 and the highest is $8.12. Nucor posted earnings per share of $5.04 in the same quarter last year, which would indicate a positive year over year growth rate of 37.5%. The company is scheduled to issue its next quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 1st.

According to Zacks, analysts expect that Nucor will report full-year earnings of $21.27 per share for the current year, with EPS estimates ranging from $19.10 to $22.40. For the next fiscal year, analysts anticipate that the business will post earnings of $12.01 per share, with EPS estimates ranging from $8.76 to $18.12. Zacks Investment Research’s EPS calculations are an average based on a survey of sell-side analysts that that provide coverage for Nucor.

Nucor (NYSE:NUE – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 21st. The basic materials company reported $7.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $7.39 by $0.28. The company had revenue of $10.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.72 billion. Nucor had a return on equity of 55.61% and a net margin of 19.97%. Nucor’s quarterly revenue was up 49.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.10 earnings per share.

Several equities analysts have recently commented on NUE shares. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Nucor from $134.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 22nd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Nucor from $107.00 to $108.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 31st. Wolfe Research downgraded Nucor from a “peer perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $102.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, January 11th. Argus boosted their price objective on Nucor from $140.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 25th. Finally, Credit Suisse Group lifted their target price on Nucor from $142.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $143.64.

Shares of Nucor stock traded up $0.92 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $130.45. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 10,903 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,529,217. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $148.43 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $125.41. Nucor has a 12-month low of $87.71 and a 12-month high of $187.90. The company has a market cap of $35.06 billion, a PE ratio of 4.70 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 1.66 and a current ratio of 2.88.

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 30th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.53%. Nucor’s payout ratio is currently 7.15%.

In other news, EVP Allen C. Behr sold 3,014 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $143.40, for a total transaction of $432,207.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Leon J. Topalian sold 16,589 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.28, for a total value of $2,459,816.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 31,639 shares of company stock worth $4,736,302 over the last three months. 0.46% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Marshall Wace North America L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Nucor in the first quarter valued at approximately $54,000. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Nucor by 123.0% in the first quarter. FMR LLC now owns 674,154 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $39,337,000 after purchasing an additional 371,876 shares during the period. Center for Financial Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Nucor in the third quarter valued at approximately $79,000. Moors & Cabot Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Nucor by 761.1% in the third quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 31,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 27,400 shares during the period. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Nucor by 35.0% in the third quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 21,239 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,092,000 after purchasing an additional 5,507 shares during the period. 77.70% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Nucor (Get Rating)

Nucor Corporation manufactures and sells steel and steel products. The company's Steel Mills segment produces hot-rolled, cold-rolled, and galvanized sheet steel products; plate steel products; wide-flange beams, beam blanks, and H-piling and sheet piling products; and bar steel products, such as blooms, billets, concrete reinforcing and merchant bars, and special bar quality products.

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