Mariner LLC Lowers Holdings in Nucor Co. (NYSE:NUE)

Mariner LLC lowered its stake in shares of Nucor Co. (NYSE:NUE) by 7.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 79,037 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 6,320 shares during the period. Mariner LLC’s holdings in Nucor were worth $9,224,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of NUE. Crews Bank & Trust purchased a new position in Nucor during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. New Wave Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Nucor during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its stake in shares of Nucor by 60.3% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 303 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 114 shares during the period. Beacon Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Nucor by 29.1% during the fourth quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC now owns 417 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $49,000 after buying an additional 94 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Millstone Evans Group LLC acquired a new stake in Nucor during the fourth quarter valued at $50,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.48% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group raised shares of Nucor from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $156.00 to $160.00 in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Nucor from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. StockNews.com raised shares of Nucor from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Nucor from $156.00 to $140.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Argus set a $155.00 price objective on Nucor in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $160.33.

Nucor Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of Nucor stock opened at $110.62 on Friday. Nucor Co. has a 1-year low of $97.59 and a 1-year high of $193.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 2.51 and a quick ratio of 1.48. The stock has a market cap of $25.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.15, a P/E/G ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.67. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $125.13 and its 200-day simple moving average is $133.27.

Nucor (NYSE:NUE) last issued its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The basic materials company reported $1.22 earnings per share (EPS) 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 period in the previous year, the company posted $3.16 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Nucor Co. will post 7.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nucor Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.55 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.99%. Nucor’s dividend 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.