POSCO (NYSE:PKX) Shares Gap Up – Here’s Why

POSCO (NYSE:PKX)’s stock price gapped up before the market opened on Monday. The stock had previously closed at $54.97, but opened at $58.82. POSCO shares last traded at $57.6960, with a volume of 30,135 shares traded.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on PKX shares. Weiss Ratings lowered POSCO from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Friday, October 9th. Wall Street Zen upgraded POSCO from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded shares of POSCO from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

POSCO Price Performance

The company’s fifty day moving average is $58.61 and its two-hundred day moving average is $61.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.98. The firm has a market cap of $17.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.89 and a beta of 1.64.

POSCO (NYSE:PKX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.45. The business had revenue of $12.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.96 billion. POSCO had a return on equity of 1.99% and a net margin of 1.79%. Equities research analysts forecast that POSCO will post 4.91 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PKX. Mather Group LLC. lifted its holdings in POSCO by 3,766.7% during the 3rd quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 1,392 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $79,000 after buying an additional 1,356 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of POSCO by 6.9% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 9,118 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $514,000 after acquiring an additional 588 shares in the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of POSCO by 25.2% in the 2nd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,682 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $241,000 after acquiring an additional 941 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of POSCO by 28.7% in the 2nd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 48,420 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,488,000 after acquiring an additional 10,812 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nykredit A S bought a new stake in shares of POSCO in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $10,002,000.

POSCO Company Profile

POSCO is a South Korean steel producer and one of the world’s major integrated steelmakers. The company manufactures a broad range of steel products, including hot- and cold-rolled steel, heavy plate, wire rod, stainless steel, galvanized steel, automotive steel and electrical steel.

POSCO operates large integrated steelworks in Pohang and Gwangyang, South Korea. Its products are used in automobiles, shipbuilding, construction, energy infrastructure, appliances and other industrial applications.