One-glance verdict
Within fair range
$202.02 our estimate vs market $259.43
Wall Street consensus: $283.69 (40.4% higher than our fair-value estimate)
28% above our estimate
Fundamentals snapshot
Nucor Corporation
NUE · NYQ · Basic Materials · Steel
Current price
$259.43
52-week range
$131.32 - $280.11
Market cap
$58.86B
Balance sheet
Healthy
15.64x Strong cushion
Net debt $4.41B. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
3 Risks
3 rewards · 3 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 11.1% last year.
- Reward Returns 14.5% on equity, ahead of 60% of its peers.
- Risk Net debt grew 141.2% over 3 years.
- Risk Stock trades 66.7% above its 5-year average P/E.
What this company does
Nucor Corporation
Nucor is one of America's largest steel producers, primarily making money by melting scrap metal to create new steel beams, sheets, and bars. The company sells this steel for use in everything from cars and appliances to bridges and skyscrapers, making its performance a useful signal for the health of the manufacturing and construction industries. Nucor also turns its own steel into finished products like metal buildings and controls its own supply chain (the network of companies involved in making and distributing a product) by processing the raw materials it needs.
How the company got here
Nucor's story begins with a car company founded by the creator of the Oldsmobile, which later became the Nuclear Corporation of America. In the 1960s, under the leadership of Ken Iverson, the company shifted its focus to steel to supply its own needs for making steel joists (the supportive framework for floors and roofs). A key turning point was its early adoption of electric arc furnaces (EAFs), which use electricity to melt scrap metal into new steel, a more flexible and efficient method than traditional blast furnaces. This innovation, along with a unique company culture, allowed Nucor to grow into the largest and most diversified steel producer in North America.
What it actually does
Nucor makes steel and a wide variety of steel products that are essential parts of everyday life, though you might not see their brand name on them. Their steel becomes the backbone of buildings, bridges, and airports. It's also used to make cars, appliances, heavy equipment, and components for energy projects like solar arrays and utility towers. Essentially, Nucor takes scrap metal, melts it down, and turns it into the fundamental building blocks for construction and manufacturing.
Steel Mills
This is Nucor's largest business segment, forming the core of the company. These mills take scrap metal and melt it in electric arc furnaces to produce massive sheets, plates, and bars of steel. This basic steel is then sold to other companies, known as steel service centers and manufacturers, who use it to create their own products. This segment provides the raw steel that is the starting point for countless items in the construction, automotive, and energy industries.
Steel Products
This part of the company takes the steel produced by the mills and turns it into more finished goods. Think of it as moving one step closer to the final user. Products include things like steel joists and decking for buildings, electrical conduit (the tubes that protect electrical wires), and rebar (the steel rods that strengthen concrete). Customers for these products are often general contractors and fabricators working on construction projects. This segment allows Nucor to capture more value from the steel it produces.
Raw Materials
This segment is all about securing the key ingredient for Nucor's steelmaking: scrap metal. The company operates a large network of recycling facilities that collect, sort, and process both ferrous metals (like iron and steel) and nonferrous metals (like aluminum and copper). While a major purpose of this division is to supply its own steel mills, it also sells scrap metal to other companies. This control over its raw material supply chain (the entire process of creating and distributing a product) helps Nucor manage costs and ensure quality.
What management is betting on now
Nucor's current strategy focuses on expanding its production of higher-value steel products, which are more specialized and profitable than basic steel. The company is also investing heavily in projects that support the transition to cleaner energy, such as producing the thick steel plate needed for offshore wind turbines. A key priority is sustainability; Nucor aims to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, leveraging its recycling-based production model. By investing in new mill technology and more complex products, management is positioning the company to be a key supplier for modern infrastructure and manufacturing.
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Loading price history…
Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2024 Q4
$-145.77M
FY2025 Q2
$-495.00M
FY2025 Q3
$-222.00M
FY2025 Q4
$532.00M
FY2026 Q2
$225.00M
FY2026 Q3
$829.00M
Revenue
$10.40B
Net income
$1.16B
Diluted EPS
5.04
Operating cash flow
$1.40B
Free cash flow
$829.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$9.50B
Net income
$743.00M
Diluted EPS
3.23
Operating cash flow
$886.00M
Free cash flow
$225.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$8.52B
Net income
$607.00M
Diluted EPS
2.63
Operating cash flow
$1.34B
Free cash flow
$532.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$8.46B
Net income
$603.00M
Diluted EPS
2.60
Operating cash flow
$732.00M
Free cash flow
$-222.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$7.83B
Net income
$156.00M
Diluted EPS
0.67
Operating cash flow
$364.00M
Free cash flow
$-495.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$7.08B
Net income
$287.00M
Diluted EPS
1.22
Operating cash flow
$733.37M
Free cash flow
$-145.77M
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $202.02 vs current price $259.43
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $283.69 (40.4% higher than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $202.02 a share — about 22.1% away from today's price of $259.43, so the stock currently looks fairly priced.
Is it drowning in debt?
Healthy
Net debt $4.4B. Interest coverage 15.6x.
Net debt
$4.41B
Interest coverage
15.64x
Nucor Corporation's profit covers its interest bill about 15.6 times over. which is stronger than most peers shown here and 1 peers sit below 1x, which is the danger zone where profit does not fully cover the interest bill.
Healthy
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
NUE
BASELINE
Nucor Corporation
Total debt $7.10B Interest coverage 15.64x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $4.39B Interest coverage 22.83x +46% vs NUE Carries about 1.5x more debt cushion than NUE.
Total debt $7.72B Interest coverage -2.45x -100% vs NUE This peer has almost no interest-payment cushion compared with NUE.
Total debt $3.62B Interest coverage 11.43x -27% vs NUE Carries about 1.4x less debt cushion than NUE.
Total debt $2.00B Interest coverage 6.08x -61% vs NUE Carries about 2.6x less debt cushion than NUE.
What you should know
The case for and against NUE
3 Rewards
3 Risks
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 11.1% last year.
-
Returns 14.5% on equity, ahead of 60% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 9/10 years.
Risks
-
Net debt grew 141.2% over 3 years.
-
Stock trades 66.7% above its 5-year average P/E.
-
Operating margin compressed from 25.3% to 15.7% over 3 years.
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
20.72x
Forward P/E
13.28x
P/B
2.66x
P/S
1.63x
EV/EBITDA
11.34x
PEG ratio
5.21x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
15.6%
Operating margin
15.7%
Net margin
8.0%
ROE
14.5%
ROA
7.3%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
0.31x
Current ratio
2.51x
Quick ratio
1.28x
Total debt
$7.10B
Total cash
$2.69B
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$36.10B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
-2.9%
EPS TTM
12.52
EPS 5Y CAGR
-36.1%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$4.42B
Free CF TTM
$-188.00M
FCF margin
-0.5%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
0.9%
Payout ratio
17.8%
Last ex-div date
2026-06-30