POSCO (NYSE:PKX) Releases Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.12 EPS

POSCO (NYSE:PKX) posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday. The basic materials company reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.12, Zacks reports. The business had revenue of $11.88 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.75 billion. POSCO had a net margin of 1.19% and a return on equity of 1.35%.

POSCO Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:PKX traded down $0.77 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $78.63. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 160,296 shares, compared to its average volume of 166,367. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 59.57, a PEG ratio of 0.54 and a beta of 1.58. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $63.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $58.46. POSCO has a fifty-two week low of $42.35 and a fifty-two week high of $80.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.88.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On POSCO

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of POSCO by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 850,425 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $45,251,000 after purchasing an additional 41,381 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of POSCO by 57.3% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 423,253 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $20,117,000 after buying an additional 154,100 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its stake 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 buying an additional 19,312 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership bought a new stake in shares of POSCO in the third quarter valued at about $8,851,000. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of POSCO by 8.0% in the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 174,282 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $8,576,000 after buying an additional 12,932 shares during the period.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on PKX. Zacks Research downgraded shares of POSCO from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of POSCO from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of POSCO from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold”.

About POSCO

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.