Nucor Co. (NYSE:NUE) to Issue Dividend Increase – $0.55 Per Share

Nucor Co. (NYSE:NUE) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, December 11th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of 0.55 per share by the basic materials company on Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.67%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This is a positive change from Nucor’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.54.

Nucor has increased its dividend by an average of 8.7% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 51 years. Nucor has a dividend payout ratio of 23.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Nucor to earn $9.64 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.16 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 22.4%.

Nucor Stock Down 5.1 %

NUE opened at $131.42 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $150.05 and a two-hundred day moving average of $151.98. The stock has a market capitalization of $30.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.70 and a beta of 1.55. Nucor has a fifty-two week low of $130.65 and a fifty-two week high of $203.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a current ratio of 2.59.

Nucor (NYSE:NUE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The basic materials company reported $1.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.40 by $0.09. Nucor had a return on equity of 12.06% and a net margin of 8.05%. The firm had revenue of $7.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.28 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $4.57 EPS. Nucor’s revenue for the quarter was down 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Nucor will post 8.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $156.00 price target (down from $171.00) on shares of Nucor in a research note on Thursday. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Nucor from $170.00 to $166.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Nucor from $170.00 to $168.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of Nucor from $175.00 to $160.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, Argus raised shares of Nucor to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $183.75.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Nucor news, CEO Leon J. Topalian sold 11,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $169.11, for a total value of $1,860,210.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 172,136 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,109,918.96. The trade was a 6.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Stephen D. Laxton sold 4,712 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $169.53, for a total value of $798,825.36. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 82,132 shares in the company, valued at $13,923,837.96. This trade represents a 5.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 29,680 shares of company stock valued at $4,773,724. 0.46% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.