Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC Lowers Stock Position in Nucor Co. (NYSE:NUE)

Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Nucor Co. (NYSE:NUE) by 2.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,020 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 154 shares during the quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC’s holdings in Nucor were worth $819,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of NUE. Mizuho Securities USA LLC grew its stake in Nucor by 8,530.1% during the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 1,595,179 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $239,819,000 after buying an additional 1,576,695 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in Nucor by 19.8% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,456,484 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $519,648,000 after acquiring an additional 571,682 shares in the last quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Nucor in the 3rd quarter valued at $74,829,000. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in Nucor by 25.6% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,758,753 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $205,282,000 after purchasing an additional 358,721 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Nucor by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,427,899 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,724,117,000 after buying an additional 326,181 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.48% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on NUE shares. Citigroup decreased their target price on Nucor from $240.00 to $160.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Nucor from $152.00 to $150.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $156.00 price objective (down from $171.00) on shares of Nucor in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Nucor from $166.00 to $154.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Nucor in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $190.00 target price on the stock. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Nucor has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $163.13.

Nucor Stock Up 1.6 %

Shares of Nucor stock opened at $137.75 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $124.99 and a 200 day moving average price of $140.62. The stock has a market cap of $32.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.38 and a beta of 1.60. Nucor Co. has a twelve month low of $112.25 and a twelve month high of $203.00. The company has a current ratio of 2.51, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

Nucor (NYSE:NUE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The basic materials company reported $1.22 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.94 by $0.28. Nucor had a return on equity of 9.85% and a net margin of 6.60%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.16 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Nucor Co. will post 7.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Nucor Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 11th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st were given a dividend of $0.55 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.60%. This is a positive change from Nucor’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.54. Nucor’s payout ratio is currently 26.16%.

Nucor 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.