POSCO (NYSE:PKX) Shares Gap Up – Here’s Why

POSCO (NYSE:PKX)’s stock price gapped up before the market opened on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $49.96, but opened at $53.38. POSCO shares last traded at $52.9960, with a volume of 215,367 shares changing hands.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Zacks Research upgraded POSCO from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, June 8th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of POSCO from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. UBS Group raised shares of POSCO from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of POSCO from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, June 20th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

POSCO Trading Up 6.3%

The stock has a market capitalization of $16.06 billion, a PE ratio of 31.42 and a beta of 1.52. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $70.14 and a 200-day moving average price of $63.09.

POSCO (NYSE:PKX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $11.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.75 billion. POSCO had a return on equity of 1.34% and a net margin of 1.19%. Sell-side analysts expect that POSCO will post 4.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On POSCO

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of POSCO by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 850,425 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $45,251,000 after purchasing an additional 41,381 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of POSCO by 14.1% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 549,699 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $27,051,000 after buying an additional 68,104 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in POSCO by 57.3% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 423,253 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $20,117,000 after buying an additional 154,100 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its position in POSCO by 8.0% during the second quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 259,374 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $12,577,000 after buying an additional 19,312 shares during the period. Finally, Quantinno Capital Management LP increased its holdings in POSCO by 82.7% during the first 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 during the last quarter.

About POSCO

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.