Analysts Set Nucor Co. (NYSE:NUE) PT at $186.67

Shares of Nucor Co. (NYSE:NUE) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the six ratings firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $192.83.

A number of equities analysts have commented on NUE shares. UBS Group started coverage on shares of Nucor in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $210.00 price objective on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Nucor from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Nucor from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of Nucor from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $180.00 to $240.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 13th.

Insider Transactions at Nucor

In other news, EVP Kenneth Rex Query sold 5,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $186.37, for a total transaction of $1,025,035.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 85,326 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,902,206.62. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Kenneth Rex Query sold 5,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $186.37, for a total transaction of $1,025,035.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 85,326 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,902,206.62. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Allen C. Behr sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.19, for a total transaction of $1,901,900.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 80,902 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,386,751.38. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 38,151 shares of company stock valued at $7,308,683. Insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nucor

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of NUE. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in Nucor by 127,059.1% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 155,232,061 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $20,461,138,000 after acquiring an additional 155,109,984 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Nucor during the fourth quarter worth about $377,631,000. Morgan Stanley raised its stake in Nucor by 30.0% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,247,626 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $559,880,000 after acquiring an additional 979,824 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Nucor in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $108,747,000. Finally, Imprint Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Nucor by 21,987.3% in the second quarter. Imprint Wealth LLC now owns 528,992 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $52,899,000 after purchasing an additional 526,597 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.48% of the company’s stock.

Nucor Stock Performance

NYSE:NUE opened at $191.36 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 3.57, a quick ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.64 and a beta of 1.61. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $191.19 and its 200 day simple moving average is $173.57. Nucor has a twelve month low of $129.79 and a twelve month high of $203.00.

Nucor (NYSE:NUE) last posted its earnings results on Monday, January 29th. The basic materials company reported $3.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.83 by $0.33. The business had revenue of $7.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.64 billion. Nucor had a net margin of 13.03% and a return on equity of 21.42%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $4.89 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Nucor will post 13.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Nucor Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be given a dividend of $0.54 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.13%. Nucor’s payout ratio is 12.01%.

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.