POSCO (NYSE:PKX) Shares Gap Up – Still a Buy?

POSCO (NYSE:PKX) shares gapped up before the market opened on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $56.58, but opened at $59.46. POSCO shares last traded at $59.19, with a volume of 14,404 shares traded.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PKX has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group upgraded POSCO from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Wall Street Zen raised POSCO from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. Zacks Research upgraded POSCO from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised POSCO from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy”.

POSCO Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $54.91 and a 200 day moving average price of $62.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.32 and a beta of 1.56.

POSCO (NYSE:PKX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.45. The company had revenue of $12.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.96 billion. POSCO had a return on equity of 2.00% and a net margin of 1.79%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that POSCO will post 4.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in POSCO by 8.3% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,462 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $307,000 after acquiring an additional 495 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in POSCO by 57.3% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 423,253 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $20,117,000 after acquiring an additional 154,100 shares during the period. Quantinno Capital Management LP lifted its holdings in POSCO by 59.2% during the second quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 49,505 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,401,000 after purchasing an additional 18,403 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of POSCO in the second quarter valued at about $95,000. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its position in shares of POSCO by 8.0% in the second quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 259,374 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $12,577,000 after purchasing an additional 19,312 shares during the period.

POSCO Company Profile

POSCO (NYSE: PKX) is a South Korea–based integrated steel producer founded in 1968 as Pohang Iron and Steel Company. Headquartered in Pohang, the company grew rapidly as part of South Korea’s industrialization program and developed large, integrated steelworks—most notably in Pohang and Gwangyang—that helped establish POSCO among the world’s largest steelmakers. It is structured as a diversified industrial group with steelmaking at its core and a range of downstream and trading businesses.

The company’s primary activities include ironmaking and steelmaking, producing a wide array of steel products such as hot-rolled and cold-rolled sheets, coated steels, plates, stainless and special steels, long products (bars and wire rods), and seamless pipes.