POSCO (NYSE:PKX) Sees Strong Trading Volume – Here’s What Happened

Shares of POSCO (NYSE:PKX) saw strong trading volume on Wednesday . 110,510 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 49% from the previous session’s volume of 217,787 shares.The stock last traded at $71.3050 and had previously closed at $74.28.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group raised shares of POSCO from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of POSCO from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Finally, Zacks Research cut shares of POSCO from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

POSCO Price Performance

The company has a 50-day moving average price of $67.05 and a 200 day moving average price of $60.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.82 billion, a PE ratio of 42.68 and a beta of 1.58.

POSCO (NYSE:PKX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.12. POSCO had a return on equity of 1.35% and a net margin of 1.19%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that POSCO will post 4.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On POSCO

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in POSCO by 96.2% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 109,074 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $6,380,000 after buying an additional 53,469 shares in the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP grew its holdings in POSCO by 82.7% during the 1st quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 200,529 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $11,729,000 after buying an additional 90,777 shares in the last quarter. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in POSCO by 70.8% during the 1st quarter. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. now owns 9,685 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $566,000 after buying an additional 4,016 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in POSCO during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $814,000. Finally, Compound Planning Inc. grew its holdings in POSCO by 9.9% during the 1st quarter. Compound Planning Inc. now owns 9,066 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $530,000 after buying an additional 819 shares in the last quarter.

POSCO Company Profile

POSCO (NYSE: PKX) is a South Korea–based integrated steel producer founded in 1968 as Pohang Iron and Steel Company. Headquartered in Pohang, the company grew rapidly as part of South Korea’s industrialization program and developed large, integrated steelworks—most notably in Pohang and Gwangyang—that helped establish POSCO among the world’s largest steelmakers. It is structured as a diversified industrial group with steelmaking at its core and a range of downstream and trading businesses.

The company’s primary activities include ironmaking and steelmaking, producing a wide array of steel products such as hot-rolled and cold-rolled sheets, coated steels, plates, stainless and special steels, long products (bars and wire rods), and seamless pipes.