Financial Comparison: SSAB (OTCMKTS:SSAAY) vs. Nucor (NYSE:NUE)

SSAB (OTCMKTS:SSAAY) and Nucor (NYSE:NUE) are both basic materials companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, valuation, dividends, institutional ownership and risk.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares SSAB and Nucor”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
SSAB	$9.78 billion	0.59	$617.08 million	$0.22	13.23
Nucor	$30.73 billion	1.09	$2.03 billion	$5.54	26.26

Nucor has higher revenue and earnings than SSAB. SSAB is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Nucor, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares SSAB and Nucor’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SSAB	4.62%	6.66%	4.33%
Nucor	4.21%	6.65%	4.15%

Volatility & Risk

SSAB has a beta of 1.28, meaning that its stock price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nucor has a beta of 1.74, meaning that its stock price is 74% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for SSAB and Nucor, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SSAB	0	2	0	0	2.00
Nucor	0	1	7	1	3.00

Nucor has a consensus price target of $155.7778, suggesting a potential upside of 7.07%. Given Nucor’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Nucor is more favorable than SSAB.

Dividends

SSAB pays an annual dividend of $0.09 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. Nucor pays an annual dividend of $2.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. SSAB pays out 40.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Nucor pays out 39.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Nucor has increased its dividend for 52 consecutive years.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

76.5% of Nucor shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of Nucor shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Nucor beats SSAB on 14 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About SSAB

SSAB AB (publ) produces and sells steel products in Sweden, Finland, Rest of Europe, the United States, and internationally. It operates through five segments: SSAB Special Steels, SSAB Europe, SSAB Americas, Tibnor, and Ruukki Construction. The SSAB Special Steels segment offers quenched and tempered steels, and advanced high-strength steel products for steel and plate production. The SSAB Europe segment provides strip, heavy plate, and tubular products. The SSAB Americas segment sells heavy plates for steel and plate production. The Tibnor segment distributes a range of steel and non-ferrous metals in the Nordics and Baltics. The Ruukki Construction segment produces and sells energy-efficient building and construction solutions. It markets its steel products under the Strenx, Hardox, Docol, GreenCoat, Toolox, Armox, Duroxite, SSAB AM, SSAB Boron, SSAB Domex, SSAB Form, SSAB Laser, SSAB Weathering, Cor-Ten, and SSAB Multisteel brands. The company's products are used by customers in the heavy transport, construction and infrastructure, industrial applications, construction machinery, energy, and material handling markets. SSAB AB (publ) was founded in 1878 and is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.

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. This segment sells its products to steel service centers, fabricators, and manufacturers in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The Steel Products segment offers steel joists and joist girders, steel decks, and galvanized torque tubes for used in solar arrays, hollow structural section steel tubing, electrical conduit, fabricated concrete reinforcing steel, cold finished steel, steel fasteners, steel grating and expanded metal, wire and wire mesh, metal building systems, insulated metal panels, steel racking, overhead doors, and utility towers and structures for communications and energy transmission. This segment is also involved in the piling distribution business. The Raw Materials segment produces direct reduced iron (DRI); brokers ferrous and nonferrous metals, pig iron, hot briquetted iron, and DRI; supplies ferro-alloys; processes ferrous and nonferrous scrap metal; and engages in the natural gas production and industrial gas business. This segment sells its ferrous scrap to electric arc furnace steel mills and foundries for manufacturing process; and nonferrous scrap metal to aluminum can producers, secondary aluminum smelters, steel mills and other processors, and consumers of various nonferrous metals. It markets its products through in-house sales force; and internal distribution and trading companies. Nucor Corporation was founded in 1905 and is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.