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Summary

  • BNP Paribas revised its rating on Nucor to ‘Outperform’ on July 5, 2023, and maintained a price target of US$ 191.
  • Of the sixteen analysts that have covered the stock ten analysts have given a ‘Hold’ rating.
  • The mean recommendation rating on NUE is 2.6 and the consensus mean price target on the stock is US$ 164.

BNP Paribas revised its rating on Nucor to ‘Outperform’ on July 5, 2023. The equity analyst also gave a price target of US$ 191 on the stock, which is 19.04% higher than its closing price on Wednesday, July 6, 2023.

The mean recommendation rating on the stock was 2.6 on a scale of one to five. Here, one represents a ‘Strong Buy’ rating and five represents a ‘Strong Sell’ rating. Meanwhile, the consensus mean price target on the stock was US$ 164, an upside potential of 2.21% on its closing price of US$160.45 on July 5, 2023.

EODHD/Others data suggests that sixteen analysts have covered NUE. Two analysts have given NUE a ‘Strong Buy’ rating, three analysts have given it a ‘Buy’ rating, ten analysts have given the stock a ‘Hold’ rating and one analyst believes the stock is a ‘Sell’. None of the analysts have given Nucor a ‘Strong Sell’ rating.

Image source: ©2023 Kalkine®; Data source: EODHD/Others

While most of the analysts that have covered the stock suggest holding it, BNP Paribas has upgraded its rating on Nucor. The broker had previously given a ‘Neutral’ rating on Nucor, which was revised to ‘Outperform’ as per data available on EODHD/Others.

Nucor’s mid-June released guidance leads to ratings upgrade

Before BNP Paribas announced a ratings upgrade on Nucor in July, other analysts had also revised their rating on NUE soon after it released its guidance for Q2 2023. For the quarter ending July 1, 2023, Nucor expected its earning to be in the range of US$ 5.45 to US$ 5.55 per diluted share.

The company expects higher earnings in its steel mills segment in Q2 of 2023 due to margin expansion. Nucor also expects its raw materials segment to improve during the July quarter.

Following the announcement, Nucor received a rating upgrade from an analyst to ‘Peer Perform’. Meanwhile, Seaport Global maintained its ‘Buy’ rating on Nucor.

For Q1 of 2023, Nucor reported net earnings of US$ 4.45 per diluted share.

“Uniquely Strong” sales and distribution expectations behind BNP’s rating upgrade

BNP Paribas recently released a note about steelmakers, following which the equity analyst upgraded its rating on NUE. After three years of being overshadowed by auto-exposed peers, construction-exposed steelmakers might see a change in circumstances, as per BNP.

BNP Paribas believes that US demand presents a “uniquely strong” sales and distribution outlook for rebar and plate. The broker also stated that even on a conservative basis, it expects around 0.7 mtpa (7%) of rebar missing over FY24-25.

Based on this analysis, BNP raised NUE to an ‘Outperform’ rating. Alternatively, BNP downgraded Steel Dynamics and United States Steels from ‘Outperform’ to ‘Neutral’.

NUE Price Chart; Image Source: NUE EODHD/Others

NUE closed at US$ 160.45 on Wednesday, July 5, 2023. The stock hit its 52-week high of US$ 182.68 earlier this year on February 3, 2023.