Nucor Co. (NYSE:NUE) Shares Acquired by Ellsworth Advisors LLC

Ellsworth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Nucor Co. (NYSE:NUE) by 1.7% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 13,847 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 229 shares during the quarter. Ellsworth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Nucor were worth $2,189,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Nucor in the 4th quarter valued at about $377,631,000. Global Assets Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in Nucor in the 1st quarter valued at about $90,216,000. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in Nucor in the 1st quarter valued at about $37,395,000. Captrust Financial Advisors grew its stake in Nucor by 23.5% in the 1st quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 804,150 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $159,141,000 after acquiring an additional 153,077 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Trinity Street Asset Management LLP acquired a new stake in Nucor in the 2nd quarter valued at about $19,213,000. 76.48% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on NUE shares. Bank of America lowered their price objective on shares of Nucor from $210.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Nucor from $180.00 to $170.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. StockNews.com cut shares of Nucor from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of Nucor in a research note on Monday, May 20th. They set a “hold” rating and a $190.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Nucor from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $187.00 to $176.00 in a research note on Thursday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $194.43.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Daniel R. Needham sold 8,624 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.00, for a total value of $1,379,840.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 99,049 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,847,840. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.46% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Nucor Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of NUE traded up $0.01 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $145.23. The company had a trading volume of 880,407 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,479,076. Nucor Co. has a fifty-two week low of $139.41 and a fifty-two week high of $203.00. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $155.03 and a 200-day simple moving average of $173.39. The stock has a market cap of $34.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.54 and a beta of 1.57. The company has a current ratio of 2.93, a quick ratio of 1.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.

Nucor (NYSE:NUE) last issued its earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The basic materials company reported $2.68 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.31 by $0.37. The firm had revenue of $8.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.69 billion. Nucor had a return on equity of 15.69% and a net margin of 10.45%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $5.81 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Nucor Co. will post 10.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nucor Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 9th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 28th were given a dividend of $0.54 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 28th. This represents a $2.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.49%. Nucor’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 12.71%.

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.