Steel Dynamics Lowers Forecast (STLD, NUE)
Steel maker Steel Dynamics Inc. (NASDAQ: STLD) today cut its EPS guidance by around 50% of the previous consensus estimate of $0.36. The company’s new forecast is for EPS of $0.15-$0.20. Nucor Corp. (NYSE: NUE) yesterday guided its first quarter…
The company says the drop is due to “margin compression” that is the result of a mid-quarter drop in the market for flat-rolled steel while raw materials prices did not experience a concomitant decrease. This represents a sharp turnaround for Steel Dynamics, which had posted a much better-than-expected EPS return in the fourth quarter.
Iron ore prices have been drifting higher as demand picks up from China, but steel prices have been held down by an over-supply that steel makers are still trying to come to grips with.
Paul Ausick
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Paul Ausick has been writing for 247Wallst.com for more than a decade. He has written extensively on investing in the energy, defense, and technology sectors. In a previous life, he wrote technical documentation and managed a marketing communications group in Silicon Valley.
He has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Chicago and now lives in Montana, where he fishes for trout in the summer and stays inside during the winter.
