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Nucor (NUE) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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Nucor (NUE - Free Report) closed at $135.61 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.86% move from the prior day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.83%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 1.4%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.09%.

Coming into today, shares of the steel company had lost 2.99% in the past month. In that same time, the Basic Materials sector lost 3%, while the S&P 500 lost 5.51%.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Nucor as it approaches its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $7.97, up 9.48% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $10.61 billion, up 2.86% from the prior-year quarter.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $31.01 per share and revenue of $42.15 billion, which would represent changes of +33.89% and +15.53%, respectively, from the prior year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Nucor should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 1.38% lower within the past month. Nucor is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Investors should also note Nucor's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 4.34. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 2.8, so we one might conclude that Nucor is trading at a premium comparatively.

The Steel - Producers industry is part of the Basic Materials sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 193, putting it in the bottom 24% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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