Brokerages Set Nucor Co. (NYSE:NUE) PT at $157.22

Nucor Co. (NYSE:NUE) has received a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the nine brokerages that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $157.22.

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on NUE shares. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on shares of Nucor from $175.00 to $169.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 7th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded Nucor from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $140.00 to $145.00 in a report on Monday, June 2nd. Argus set a $155.00 price objective on Nucor in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Morgan Stanley set a $164.00 target price on Nucor in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered Nucor from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th.

Insider Transactions at Nucor

In related news, CEO Leon J. Topalian sold 34,238 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.19, for a total value of $4,115,065.22. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 162,993 shares in the company, valued at $19,590,128.67. This represents a 17.36% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.46% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Nucor

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Voya Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Nucor by 528.6% during the fourth quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 507,715 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $59,235,000 after buying an additional 426,949 shares in the last quarter. Stephens Inc. AR grew its stake in shares of Nucor by 38.0% in the 4th quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 8,455 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $987,000 after acquiring an additional 2,327 shares in the last quarter. Grace & White Inc. NY raised its holdings in shares of Nucor by 12.0% in the fourth quarter. Grace & White Inc. NY now owns 122,339 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $14,278,000 after purchasing an additional 13,100 shares during the last quarter. Howard Bailey Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of Nucor during the fourth quarter valued at about $842,000. Finally, DoubleLine ETF Adviser LP purchased a new position in Nucor during the fourth quarter worth about $3,100,000. 76.48% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Nucor Stock Performance

Shares of Nucor stock opened at $121.84 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $28.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.49, a P/E/G ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.68. Nucor has a twelve month low of $97.59 and a twelve month high of $170.52. The company’s fifty day moving average is $115.00 and its 200 day moving average is $123.58. The company has a quick ratio of 1.48, a current ratio of 2.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

Nucor (NYSE:NUE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The basic materials company reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.92 by ($0.15). The company had revenue of $7.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.25 billion. Nucor had a net margin of 6.60% and a return on equity of 9.85%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.46 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Nucor will post 7.64 EPS for the current year.

Nucor Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.55 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 30th. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.81%. Nucor’s dividend payout ratio is 39.15%.

Nucor Company Profile

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.