POSCO (NYSE:PKX) Shares Gap Down – Should You Sell?

POSCO (NYSE:PKX) shares gapped down prior to trading on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $75.48, but opened at $71.77. POSCO shares last traded at $71.2310, with a volume of 45,371 shares changing hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on PKX shares. Zacks Research lowered POSCO from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Weiss Ratings upgraded POSCO from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of POSCO from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 23rd. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of POSCO from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

POSCO Trading Up 0.9%

The firm’s 50-day moving average is $69.13 and its 200 day moving average is $61.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.60 and a beta of 1.58.

POSCO (NYSE:PKX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $11.88 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.75 billion. POSCO had a net margin of 1.19% and a return on equity of 1.35%. Analysts predict that POSCO will post 4.56 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On POSCO

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of POSCO by 8.3% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,462 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $307,000 after purchasing an additional 495 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of POSCO by 57.3% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 423,253 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $20,117,000 after purchasing an additional 154,100 shares during the period. Quantinno Capital Management LP lifted its position in shares of POSCO by 59.2% in the 2nd quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 49,505 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,401,000 after purchasing an additional 18,403 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of POSCO in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $95,000. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its position in shares of POSCO by 8.0% in the 2nd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 259,374 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $12,577,000 after purchasing an additional 19,312 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.