POSCO (NYSE:PKX) Shares Gap Up – Time to Buy?

POSCO (NYSE:PKX)’s stock price gapped up prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $58.43, but opened at $61.27. POSCO shares last traded at $60.8050, with a volume of 59,156 shares trading hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Zacks Research raised shares of POSCO from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of POSCO from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 18th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of POSCO from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, POSCO has an average rating of “Moderate Buy”.

POSCO Stock Up 4.3%

The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $54.23 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $62.38. The company has a market cap of $18.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.06 and a beta of 1.56. The company has a quick ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28.

POSCO (NYSE:PKX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.45. POSCO had a net margin of 1.79% and a return on equity of 2.00%. The business had revenue of $12.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.96 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that POSCO will post 4.91 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp boosted its stake 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 buying an additional 41,381 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of POSCO by 57.3% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 423,253 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $20,117,000 after acquiring an additional 154,100 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its position in shares of POSCO by 8.0% during the 2nd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 259,374 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $12,577,000 after acquiring an additional 19,312 shares during the period. Nykredit A S acquired a new stake in shares of POSCO during the 2nd quarter worth $13,269,000. Finally, Quantinno Capital Management LP increased its position in shares of POSCO by 82.7% in the first quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 200,529 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $11,729,000 after purchasing an additional 90,777 shares during the period.

POSCO Company Profile

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.