Nucor (NYSE:NUE) Issues Q2 Earnings Guidance

Nucor (NYSE:NUE) updated its second quarter earnings guidance on Monday. The company provided earnings per share guidance of below $3.46 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of $3.63.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Nucor from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. UBS Group began coverage on Nucor in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. They issued a buy rating and a $210.00 target price on the stock. Citigroup upgraded Nucor from a neutral rating to a buy rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $180.00 to $240.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Nucor from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Tuesday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Nucor currently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $192.83.

Nucor Price Performance

NUE stock traded down $0.36 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $174.28. The stock had a trading volume of 535,783 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,413,469. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 3.57 and a quick ratio of 2.35. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $191.20 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $174.18. Nucor has a twelve month low of $129.79 and a twelve month high of $203.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.27 and a beta of 1.61.

Nucor (NYSE:NUE) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The basic materials company reported $3.46 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.62 by ($0.16). The business had revenue of $8.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.26 billion. Nucor had a return on equity of 19.67% and a net margin of 12.40%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $4.45 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Nucor will post 12.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nucor Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be given a $0.54 dividend. This represents a $2.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 27th. Nucor’s payout ratio is 12.71%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Nucor news, EVP Douglas J. Jellison sold 19,506 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $193.41, for a total value of $3,772,655.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 120,738 shares in the company, valued at $23,351,936.58. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, EVP Kenneth Rex Query sold 5,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $186.37, for a total value of $1,025,035.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly 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 available through this link. Also, EVP Douglas J. Jellison sold 19,506 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $193.41, for a total transaction of $3,772,655.46. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 120,738 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,351,936.58. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 38,151 shares of company stock worth $7,308,683 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.64% of the company’s stock.

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.