Flputnam Investment Management Co. Sells 222 Shares of Nucor Co. (NYSE:NUE)

Flputnam Investment Management Co. reduced its stake in shares of Nucor Co. (NYSE:NUE) by 13.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,492 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 222 shares during the quarter. Flputnam Investment Management Co.’s holdings in Nucor were worth $260,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in NUE. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Nucor by 127,059.1% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 155,232,061 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $20,461,138,000 after acquiring an additional 155,109,984 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in Nucor by 30.0% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,247,626 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $559,880,000 after purchasing an additional 979,824 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Nucor in the fourth quarter worth about $111,725,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Nucor during the fourth quarter valued at about $108,747,000. Finally, Imprint Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Nucor by 21,987.3% in the 2nd quarter. Imprint Wealth LLC now owns 528,992 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $52,899,000 after buying an additional 526,597 shares in the last quarter. 76.48% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NUE has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Nucor from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday. StockNews.com upgraded Nucor from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. UBS Group started coverage on Nucor in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. They set a “buy” rating and a $210.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Citigroup upgraded Nucor from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $180.00 to $240.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Nucor currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $192.83.

Nucor Stock Performance

Shares of NUE stock opened at $190.77 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $191.09 and a 200 day moving average of $173.32. Nucor Co. has a 1 year low of $129.79 and a 1 year high of $203.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 3.57 and a quick ratio of 2.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.60 and a beta of 1.61.

Nucor (NYSE:NUE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 29th. The basic materials company reported $3.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.83 by $0.33. The firm had revenue of $7.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.64 billion. Nucor had a return on equity of 21.42% and a net margin of 13.03%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $4.89 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Nucor Co. will post 13.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Nucor Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be paid a $0.54 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $2.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.13%. Nucor’s payout ratio is currently 12.01%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Nucor news, EVP Kenneth Rex Query sold 5,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $186.37, for a total value of $1,025,035.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 85,326 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,902,206.62. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Kenneth Rex Query sold 5,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $186.37, for a total value of $1,025,035.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 85,326 shares in the company, valued at $15,902,206.62. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Allen C. Behr sold 10,000 shares of Nucor stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $190.19, for a total value of $1,901,900.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 80,902 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,386,751.38. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 38,151 shares of company stock valued at $7,308,683 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.

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.