Nucor Corporation (NYSE:NUE) Given Average Recommendation of “Buy” by Brokerages

Nucor Corporation (NYSE:NUE) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the eight research firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $150.00.

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Nucor from $153.00 to $147.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 29th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Nucor from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Nucor from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $140.00 to $145.00 in a report on Monday, June 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of Nucor from $175.00 to $169.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Nucor from $134.00 to $149.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, June 20th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Nucor news, CEO Leon J. Topalian sold 34,238 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 162,993 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,590,128.67. This represents a 17.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Daniel R. Needham sold 7,088 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.87, for a total transaction of $906,342.56. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 99,379 shares in the company, valued at $12,707,592.73. This trade represents a 6.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 51,326 shares of company stock worth $6,325,108. 0.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Nucor

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Nucor by 2.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 28,959,327 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,484,965,000 after acquiring an additional 745,671 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Nucor by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,967,254 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $701,255,000 after acquiring an additional 105,309 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Nucor during the fourth quarter worth $398,077,000. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in Nucor by 18.7% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,435,265 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $284,220,000 after acquiring an additional 384,205 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP raised its position in Nucor by 24.6% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,404,477 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $280,627,000 after acquiring an additional 474,274 shares in the last quarter. 76.48% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Nucor Trading Down 0.3%

NUE opened at $138.51 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $31.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 1.70. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $120.58 and a 200 day simple moving average of $122.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 2.52 and a quick ratio of 1.48. Nucor has a fifty-two week low of $97.59 and a fifty-two week high of $170.52.

Nucor (NYSE:NUE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 28th. The basic materials company reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by ($0.15). The firm had revenue of $7.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.25 billion. Nucor had a net margin of 4.40% and a return on equity of 6.82%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.46 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Nucor will post 7.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Nucor Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Monday, June 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.55 per share. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.59%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 30th. Nucor’s payout ratio is 39.15%.

About Nucor

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.