Contrasting Nucor (NUE) & Its Rivals

Nucor (NYSE:NUE) is one of 1,984 publicly-traded companies in the “Metals & Mining” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its peers? We will compare Nucor to related companies based on the strength of its profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, risk, earnings, institutional ownership and valuation.

Volatility & Risk

Nucor has a beta of 1.81, meaning that its share price is 81% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nucor’s peers have a beta of 0.96, meaning that their average share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Nucor and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Nucor	0	3	14	1	2.89
Nucor Competitors	6414	22620	32328	1801	2.47

Nucor currently has a consensus target price of $287.38, suggesting a potential upside of 10.30%. As a group, “Metals & Mining” companies have a potential upside of 24.97%. Given Nucor’s peers higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Nucor has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Nucor and its peers revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Nucor	$32.49 billion	$1.74 billion	16.58
Nucor Competitors	$4.78 billion	$278.94 million	-26.16

Nucor has higher revenue and earnings than its peers. Nucor is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Dividends

Nucor pays an annual dividend of $2.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Nucor pays out 14.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Metals & Mining” companies pay a dividend yield of 10.0% and pay out 10.8% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Nucor has raised its dividend for 52 consecutive years. Nucor lags its peers as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Profitability

This table compares Nucor and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Nucor	9.26%	15.53%	9.78%
Nucor Competitors	-1,161,736,352,322,426,600.00%	-52.87%	-2.06%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

76.5% of Nucor shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 15.9% of shares of all “Metals & Mining” companies are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of Nucor shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 17.6% of shares of all “Metals & Mining” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Nucor beats its peers on 11 of the 15 factors compared.

About Nucor

Nucor Corporation is a U.S.-based steel and steel products manufacturer. Its steel mills produce sheet, plate, bar, structural steel and reinforcing bar used in construction, manufacturing, transportation and other industries. The company also makes downstream products such as steel joists, decking, fasteners, wire products and metal building components. Its operations include recycling ferrous scrap and producing direct reduced iron, materials used in steelmaking. Nucor traces its roots to 1905 and developed into a steel producer during the mid-20th century.