Nucor Corporation manufactures and sells steel and steel products. The company's 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 products; and bar steel products, such as blooms, billets, concrete reinforcing and merchant bars, and special bar quality products. It also 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. Its Steel Products segment offers hollow structural section steel tubing products, electrical conduits, steel racking, steel joists and joist girders, steel decks, fabricated concrete reinforcing steel products, cold finished steel products, steel fasteners, metal building systems, insulated metal panels, steel grating and expanded metal products, and wire and wire mesh products primarily for use in nonresidential construction applications. This segment also engages in the piling distribution business. The company's Raw Materials segment produces direct reduced iron (DRI); brokers ferrous and nonferrous metals, pig iron, hot briquetted iron, and DRI; supplies ferro-alloys; and processes ferrous and nonferrous scrap metal, as well as engages in the natural gas drilling operations. 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 serves agriculture, automotive, construction, energy and transmission, oil and gas, heavy equipment, infrastructure, and transportation industries through its in-house sales force; and internal distribution and trading companies. Nucor Corporation was incorporated in 1958 and is based in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
Several analysts have commented on NUE shares. StockNews.com raised shares of Nucor from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, August 8th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of Nucor from $168.00 to $128.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Nucor from $146.00 to $125.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 14th. UBS Group set a $120.00 price objective on shares of Nucor in a research note on Monday, June 20th. Finally, Argus boosted their price objective on shares of Nucor from $140.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, April 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Nucor presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $133.18.
Nucor Stock Performance
NYSE:NUE traded up $0.99 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $142.89. 1,113,049 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,158,232. The stock has a market capitalization of $37.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.38 and a beta of 1.40. Nucor has a twelve month low of $88.50 and a twelve month high of $187.90. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $119.60 and a 200 day moving average of $130.07. The company has a current ratio of 2.62, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37.
Nucor (NYSE:NUE - Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 21st. The basic materials company reported $9.67 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $8.91 by $0.76. The firm had revenue of $11.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $11.59 billion. Nucor had a net margin of 21.03% and a return on equity of 57.78%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 34.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $5.04 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Nucor will post 3.45 EPS for the current year.
Nucor Announces Dividend
The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 30th were paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 29th. Nucor's dividend payout ratio is 6.14%.
Insider Activity
In other news, CEO Leon J. Topalian sold 48,768 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $112.61, for a total value of $5,491,764.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 135,809 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,293,451.49. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, EVP Kenneth Rex Query sold 5,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.64, for a total value of $708,200.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 76,100 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $10,778,804. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Leon J. Topalian sold 48,768 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $112.61, for a total transaction of $5,491,764.48. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 135,809 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,293,451.49. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 57,175 shares of company stock worth $6,616,198. 0.46% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.