United States Steel (X) Competitors

Nucor (NYSE:NUE) and United States Steel (NYSE:X) are both large-cap basic materials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, institutional ownership, community ranking, dividends, profitability, valuation, media sentiment and analyst recommendations.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer NUE or X?

United States Steel received 226 more outperform votes than Nucor when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 64.21% of users gave Nucor an outperform vote while only 55.26% of users gave United States Steel an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Nucor	Outperform Votes 698 64.21%	Underperform Votes 389 35.79%
United States Steel	Outperform Votes 924 55.26%	Underperform Votes 748 44.74%

Do analysts recommend NUE or X?

Nucor presently has a consensus target price of $157.22, indicating a potential upside of 29.04%. United States Steel has a consensus target price of $43.80, indicating a potential downside of 16.06%. Given Nucor's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Nucor is more favorable than United States Steel.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Nucor	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
United States Steel	1 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00

Is NUE or X more profitable?

Nucor has a net margin of 6.60% compared to United States Steel's net margin of 2.46%. Nucor's return on equity of 9.85% beat United States Steel's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Nucor	6.60%	9.85%	6.25%
United States Steel	2.46%	4.27%	2.40%

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of NUE or X?

76.5% of Nucor shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 81.9% of United States Steel shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of Nucor shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of United States Steel shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Is NUE or X a better dividend stock?

Nucor pays an annual dividend of $2.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. United States Steel pays an annual dividend of $0.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.4%. Nucor pays out 39.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. United States Steel pays out 69.0% 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 raised its dividend for 52 consecutive years. Nucor is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Which has higher earnings and valuation, NUE or X?

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

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Nucor	$30.43B	0.92	$2.03B	$5.62	21.68
United States Steel	$15.21B	0.78	$384M	$0.29	179.91

Which has more risk & volatility, NUE or X?

Nucor has a beta of 1.68, suggesting that its share price is 68% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, United States Steel has a beta of 1.87, suggesting that its share price is 87% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media prefer NUE or X?

In the previous week, Nucor had 26 more articles in the media than United States Steel. MarketBeat recorded 32 mentions for Nucor and 6 mentions for United States Steel. Nucor's average media sentiment score of 0.93 beat United States Steel's score of 0.53 indicating that Nucor is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Nucor	15 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	4 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
United States Steel	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Nucor beats United States Steel on 17 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.