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Nucor (NUE) Dips More Than Broader Markets: What You Should Know

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Nucor (NUE - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $78.75, moving -0.69% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.09%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.3%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.6%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the steel company had gained 28.92% over the past month. This has outpaced the Basic Materials sector's gain of 4.28% and the S&P 500's gain of 4.45% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from NUE as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect NUE to post earnings of $3.13 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 216.16%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $7.55 billion, up 34.16% from the year-ago period.

NUE's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $7.86 per share and revenue of $28.28 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +135.33% and +40.41%, respectively.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for NUE. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

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 77.45% higher within the past month. NUE is holding a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy) right now.

Digging into valuation, NUE currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 10.09. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 9.57.

Investors should also note that NUE has a PEG ratio of 0.84 right now. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Steel - Producers industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 0.66 as of yesterday's close.

The Steel - Producers industry is part of the Basic Materials sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 15, putting it in the top 6% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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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