Nucor Co. (NYSE:NUE) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Nucor Co. (NYSE:NUE) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the nine analysts that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, six have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $160.33.

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on NUE shares. Morgan Stanley set a $164.00 price objective on shares of Nucor in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Argus set a $155.00 price objective on shares of Nucor in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Nucor from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $156.00 to $160.00 in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of Nucor from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Nucor from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Leon J. Topalian sold 34,238 shares of Nucor stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.19, for a total transaction of $4,115,065.22. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 162,993 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,590,128.67. The trade was a 17.36% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Nucor

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. MBB Public Markets I LLC bought a new stake in shares of Nucor during the 1st quarter worth $295,000. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Nucor by 6,275.8% during the 1st quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 31,560 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,798,000 after acquiring an additional 31,065 shares during the last quarter. United Services Automobile Association bought a new stake in shares of Nucor during the 1st quarter worth $691,000. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Nucor by 71.8% during the 1st quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 42,483 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,112,000 after acquiring an additional 17,762 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sciencast Management LP lifted its holdings in shares of Nucor by 18.4% during the 1st quarter. Sciencast Management LP now owns 17,671 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,127,000 after acquiring an additional 2,749 shares during the last quarter. 76.48% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Nucor Trading Up 0.3%

NYSE:NUE opened at $115.85 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.51, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.71 billion, a PE ratio of 13.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.73. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $117.69 and its 200 day moving average is $128.49. Nucor has a 12 month low of $97.59 and a 12 month high of $173.00.

Nucor (NYSE:NUE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The basic materials company reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by ($0.15). The company had revenue of $7.83 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.25 billion. Nucor had a return on equity of 9.85% and a net margin of 6.60%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.46 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Nucor will post 7.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Nucor Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st were given a dividend of $0.55 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 31st. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.90%. Nucor’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 39.15%.

Nucor Company Profile

Nucor Corporation engages in manufacture and sale of steel and steel products. It operates in three segments: steel mills, steel products, and raw materials. The 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 structural steel products; bar steel products, such as blooms, billets, concrete reinforcing and merchant bars, and engineered special bar quality products; and engages in the steel trading and rebar distribution businesses.