POSCO (NYSE:PKX) Hits New 52-Week High Following Analyst Upgrade

POSCO (NYSE:PKX) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Monday after UBS Group upgraded the stock from a neutral rating to a buy rating. The stock traded as high as $72.05 and last traded at $71.4610, with a volume of 7690 shares. The stock had previously closed at $70.15.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on PKX. Zacks Research downgraded shares of POSCO from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of POSCO from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 22nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. State Street Corp increased its position in POSCO by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 850,425 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $45,251,000 after purchasing an additional 41,381 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in POSCO by 14.1% during the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 549,699 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $27,051,000 after purchasing an additional 68,104 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in POSCO by 57.3% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 423,253 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $20,117,000 after purchasing an additional 154,100 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its position in POSCO by 8.0% during the 2nd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 259,374 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $12,577,000 after purchasing an additional 19,312 shares during the period. Finally, UBS Group AG increased its position in POSCO by 135.6% during the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 199,914 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $10,637,000 after purchasing an additional 115,069 shares during the period.

POSCO Trading Up 1.3%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.88. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $62.44 and its 200-day simple moving average is $57.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.50 billion, a PE ratio of 53.84, a P/E/G ratio of 0.48 and a beta of 1.43.

POSCO (NYSE:PKX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The basic materials company reported ($0.61) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 expect that POSCO will post 3.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

POSCO Company Profile

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.