Traders Buy Large Volume of Put Options on Nucor (NYSE:NUE)

Nucor Co. (NYSE:NUE) saw some unusual options trading on Monday. Investors acquired 14,380 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 174% compared to the typical volume of 5,252 put options.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Kenneth Rex Query sold 5,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 85,326 shares in the company, valued at $15,902,206.62. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, EVP Kenneth Rex Query sold 5,500 shares of Nucor 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 85,326 shares in the company, valued at $15,902,206.62. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Douglas J. Jellison sold 19,506 shares of Nucor stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $193.41, for a total value of $3,772,655.46. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 120,738 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,351,936.58. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 38,151 shares of company stock worth $7,308,683. 0.46% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nucor

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in Nucor by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 4,175,571 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $652,851,000 after acquiring an additional 149,589 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Nucor by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,262,832 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $353,794,000 after acquiring an additional 159,230 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Nucor in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $377,631,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Nucor by 13.0% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,070,960 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $360,430,000 after acquiring an additional 237,752 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Nucor by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,499,893 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $261,041,000 after acquiring an additional 36,304 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.48% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on NUE shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Nucor from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. StockNews.com cut Nucor from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday. UBS Group began coverage on Nucor in a report 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 raised their target price for the stock from $180.00 to $240.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $192.83.

Nucor Trading Down 8.9 %

NYSE:NUE opened at $174.64 on Wednesday. Nucor has a fifty-two week low of $129.79 and a fifty-two week 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 stock has a market capitalization of $41.91 billion, a PE ratio of 9.71 and a beta of 1.61. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $191.20 and its 200-day simple moving average is $174.18.

Nucor (NYSE:NUE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 22nd. The basic materials company reported $3.46 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.62 by ($0.16). Nucor had a net margin of 13.03% and a return on equity of 21.42%. The business had revenue of $8.14 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.26 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $4.45 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Nucor will post 12.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Nucor Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be paid a $0.54 dividend. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 27th. Nucor’s payout ratio is 12.01%.

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.