Nucor Co. (NYSE:NUE) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.54

Nucor Co. (NYSE:NUE) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, June 6th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 28th will be given a dividend of 0.54 per share by the basic materials company on Friday, August 9th. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.43%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 28th.

Nucor has raised its dividend payment by an average of 8.7% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 51 consecutive years. Nucor has a payout ratio of 17.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Nucor to earn $12.65 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 17.1%.

Nucor Stock Down 2.6 %

NUE opened at $151.46 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $168.61 and a 200-day simple moving average of $178.06. Nucor has a 12 month low of $140.07 and a 12 month high of $203.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $36.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.91 and a beta of 1.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 4.02 and a quick ratio of 2.48.

Nucor (NYSE:NUE) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The basic materials company reported $3.46 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.62 by ($0.16). Nucor had a net margin of 12.40% and a return on equity of 19.62%. The business had revenue of $8.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.26 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $4.45 EPS. Nucor’s revenue was down 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Nucor will post 10.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have weighed in on NUE shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Nucor from $190.00 to $180.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 11th. StockNews.com cut Nucor from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Citigroup raised Nucor from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $180.00 to $240.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Nucor in a research report on Monday, May 20th. They set a “hold” rating and a $190.00 target price on the stock. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on Nucor from $185.00 to $175.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Nucor presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $188.38.

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.