Nucor Co. (NYSE:NUE) Position Increased by Stratos Wealth Partners LTD.

Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. lifted its holdings in Nucor Co. (NYSE:NUE) by 3.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,893 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 146 shares during the quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD.’s holdings in Nucor were worth $454,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Mizuho Securities USA LLC boosted its stake in Nucor by 8,530.1% in the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 1,595,179 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $239,819,000 after acquiring an additional 1,576,695 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Nucor by 19.8% during the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,456,484 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $519,648,000 after purchasing an additional 571,682 shares during the period. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC bought a new position in Nucor during the 3rd quarter worth $74,829,000. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in Nucor by 25.6% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,758,753 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $205,282,000 after buying an additional 358,721 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its stake in Nucor by 2.9% in the third 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 during the last quarter. 76.48% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on NUE shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Nucor from $152.00 to $150.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Nucor from $166.00 to $154.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Nucor from $240.00 to $160.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $156.00 price objective (down from $171.00) on shares of Nucor in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on Nucor from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $163.13.

Nucor Stock Performance

NUE opened at $138.29 on Wednesday. Nucor Co. has a 1-year low of $112.25 and a 1-year high of $203.00. The company has a market capitalization of $32.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.44 and a beta of 1.60. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $125.83 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $140.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 2.51 and a quick ratio of 1.48.

Nucor (NYSE:NUE) last announced its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The basic materials company reported $1.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.16 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Nucor Co. will post 7.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nucor Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 11th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st were issued a $0.55 dividend. This is an increase from Nucor’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.54. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.59%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 31st. Nucor’s payout ratio is presently 26.16%.

About Nucor

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.