POSCO (NYSE:PKX) Cut to “Strong Sell” at Zacks Research

Zacks Research downgraded shares of POSCO (NYSE:PKX) from a hold rating to a strong sell rating in a report released on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Separately, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of POSCO in a research report on Friday, March 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce”.

POSCO Stock Performance

Shares of PKX opened at $63.19 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.87, a PEG ratio of 0.43 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 1.88 and a quick ratio of 1.29. The business has a fifty day moving average of $61.72 and a 200 day moving average of $56.53. POSCO has a one year low of $42.35 and a one year high of $71.35.

POSCO (NYSE:PKX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The basic materials company reported ($0.61) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.45 by ($1.06). The company had revenue of $10.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.85 billion. POSCO had a net margin of 0.97% and a return on equity of 1.09%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that POSCO will post 3.74 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On POSCO

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Corient Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in POSCO by 17.0% during the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 30,097 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,602,000 after acquiring an additional 4,364 shares during the last quarter. Compound Planning Inc. increased its stake in POSCO by 15.4% during the fourth quarter. Compound Planning Inc. now owns 8,247 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $439,000 after acquiring an additional 1,100 shares during the last quarter. Summit Global Investments increased its stake in POSCO by 19.0% during the fourth quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 12,093 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $643,000 after acquiring an additional 1,929 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC bought a new stake in POSCO during the fourth quarter worth approximately $9,223,000. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd bought a new stake in POSCO during the fourth quarter worth approximately $475,000.

About POSCO

POSCO (NYSE: PKX) is a South Korea–based integrated steel producer founded in 1968 as Pohang Iron and Steel Company. Headquartered in Pohang, the company grew rapidly as part of South Korea’s industrialization program and developed large, integrated steelworks—most notably in Pohang and Gwangyang—that helped establish POSCO among the world’s largest steelmakers. It is structured as a diversified industrial group with steelmaking at its core and a range of downstream and trading businesses.

The company’s primary activities include ironmaking and steelmaking, producing a wide array of steel products such as hot-rolled and cold-rolled sheets, coated steels, plates, stainless and special steels, long products (bars and wire rods), and seamless pipes.