Bank of America Corp DE Buys 53,469 Shares of POSCO $PKX

Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in POSCO (NYSE:PKX) by 96.2% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 109,074 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 53,469 shares during the quarter. Bank of America Corp DE’s holdings in POSCO were worth $6,380,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in POSCO by 8.3% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,462 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $307,000 after buying an additional 495 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in POSCO by 57.3% in the first 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 last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in POSCO by 59.2% in the second quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 49,505 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,401,000 after acquiring an additional 18,403 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in POSCO during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $95,000. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its holdings in POSCO by 8.0% during 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 last quarter.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on PKX shares. Wall Street Zen upgraded POSCO from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. 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, Zacks Research raised POSCO from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy”.

POSCO Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:PKX opened at $58.46 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $54.23 and its 200 day moving average is $62.38. 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 has a 52 week low of $44.99 and a 52 week high of $92.40. The stock has a market cap of $17.68 billion, a PE ratio of 22.14 and a beta of 1.56.

POSCO (NYSE:PKX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.30 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $12.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.96 billion. Research analysts anticipate that POSCO will post 4.91 earnings per share for the current year.

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.