Nucor Misses on Revenues but Beats on EPS

Seth Jayson, The Motley Fool
Updated

Nucor (NYS: NUE) reported earnings on Jan. 29. Here are the numbers you need to know.

The 10-second takeaway
 For the quarter ended Dec. 31 (Q4), Nucor missed estimates on revenues and beat expectations on earnings per share.

Compared to the prior-year quarter, revenue shrank and GAAP earnings per share stayed the same.


Margins grew across the board.

Revenue details
 Nucor reported revenue of $4.45 billion. The 15 analysts polled by S&P Capital IQ hoped for a top line of $4.55 billion on the same basis. GAAP reported sales were 7.8% lower than the prior-year quarter's $4.83 billion.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Dollar amounts in millions. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.

EPS details
 EPS came in at $0.45. The 16 earnings estimates compiled by S&P Capital IQ predicted $0.30 per share. GAAP EPS of $0.43 were the same as the prior-year quarter.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.

Margin details
 For the quarter, gross margin was 8.6%, 100 basis points better than the prior-year quarter. Operating margin was 5.9%, 50 basis points better than the prior-year quarter. Net margin was 3.1%, 30 basis points better than the prior-year quarter.

Looking ahead
 Next quarter's average estimate for revenue is $5.01 billion. On the bottom line, the average EPS estimate is $0.61.

Next year's average estimate for revenue is $20.42 billion. The average EPS estimate is $2.85.

Investor sentiment
 The stock has a four-star rating (out of five) at Motley Fool CAPS, with 2,112 members out of 2,199 rating the stock outperform, and 87 members rating it underperform. Among 577 CAPS All-Star picks (recommendations by the highest-ranked CAPS members), 561 give Nucor a green thumbs-up, and 16 give it a red thumbs-down.

Of Wall Street recommendations tracked by S&P Capital IQ, the average opinion on Nucor is outperform, with an average price target of $45.49.

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The article Nucor Misses on Revenues but Beats on EPS originally appeared on Fool.com.

Seth Jayson had no position in any company mentioned here at the time of publication. You can view his stock holdings here. He is co-advisor ofMotley Fool Hidden Gems, which provides new small-cap ideas every month, backed by a real-money portfolio. TMFDisclosureHere

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