HighPoint Advisor Group LLC Has $372,000 Position in Nucor Co. (NYSE:NUE)

HighPoint Advisor Group LLC lessened its stake in shares of Nucor Co. (NYSE:NUE) by 9.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,189 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 328 shares during the period. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC’s holdings in Nucor were worth $372,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of NUE. Summit Financial LLC raised its holdings in Nucor by 170.6% in the 4th quarter. Summit Financial LLC now owns 4,752 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $557,000 after acquiring an additional 2,996 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Nucor by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 251,364 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $29,337,000 after purchasing an additional 1,380 shares during the period. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Nucor by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 16,218 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,917,000 after purchasing an additional 287 shares during the period. Schroder Investment Management Group boosted its stake in Nucor by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 407,299 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $46,966,000 after purchasing an additional 16,940 shares during the period. Finally, Allianz SE acquired a new stake in Nucor in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $338,000. Institutional investors own 76.48% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on NUE shares. Argus set a $155.00 price objective on Nucor in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. UBS Group raised shares of Nucor from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $156.00 to $160.00 in a report on Monday, March 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Nucor from $150.00 to $156.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Morgan Stanley set a $164.00 target price on shares of Nucor in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price target on Nucor from $240.00 to $160.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $164.44.

Nucor Price Performance

Shares of NUE stock opened at $123.29 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $130.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $136.86. Nucor Co. has a one year low of $112.25 and a one year high of $203.00. The firm has a market cap of $28.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.66, a P/E/G ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.58. 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 issued its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The basic materials company reported $1.22 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.94 by $0.28. Nucor had a net margin of 6.60% and a return on equity of 9.85%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.16 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Nucor Co. will post 7.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Nucor Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a $0.55 dividend. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. Nucor’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 26.16%.

Nucor Company 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.