State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Lowers Position in Nucor Corporation $NUE

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D cut its holdings in shares of Nucor Corporation (NYSE:NUE) by 2.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 77,984 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 2,277 shares during the quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Nucor were worth $10,102,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Nucor by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 28,959,327 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,484,965,000 after purchasing an additional 745,671 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of Nucor by 18.2% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,309,452 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $277,920,000 after purchasing an additional 355,364 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in shares of Nucor by 10.6% during the 2nd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,856,100 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $244,059,000 after purchasing an additional 177,420 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Nucor by 5.5% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,772,831 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $213,342,000 after purchasing an additional 92,363 shares during the period. Finally, Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Nucor during the 1st quarter worth $194,804,000. 76.48% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Kenneth Rex Query sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $144.90, for a total transaction of $1,449,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 84,080 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,183,192. This trade represents a 10.63% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Michael D. Keller sold 6,088 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.41, for a total value of $903,520.08. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 22,464 shares in the company, valued at $3,333,882.24. This trade represents a 21.32% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 31,309 shares of company stock worth $4,553,771 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on NUE shares. Bank of America increased their price target on Nucor from $150.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Nucor from $165.00 to $172.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 13th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Nucor from $146.00 to $140.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 18th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Nucor in a report on Saturday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on Nucor from $182.00 to $173.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, September 22nd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Nucor currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $157.60.

Nucor Price Performance

Shares of NYSE NUE opened at $138.79 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a current ratio of 2.83. Nucor Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $97.59 and a fifty-two week high of $170.52. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.86 billion, a PE ratio of 25.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.75. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $140.44 and its 200-day simple moving average is $130.92.

Nucor (NYSE:NUE) last issued its earnings results on Monday, July 28th. The basic materials company reported $2.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.54 by $0.06. Nucor had a return on equity of 6.65% and a net margin of 4.21%.The business had revenue of $8.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.47 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.68 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Nucor Corporation will post 7.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nucor Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 10th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 30th will be given a dividend of $0.55 per share. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 30th. Nucor’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 39.71%.

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.