POSCO (NYSE:PKX) Short Interest Down 23.1% in January

POSCO (NYSE:PKX) saw a large drop in short interest in the month of January. As of January 30th, there was short interest totaling 1,189,111 shares, a drop of 23.1% from the January 15th total of 1,545,571 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 275,565 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.3 days. Based on an average trading volume of 275,565 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.3 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On POSCO

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership bought a new position in shares of POSCO in the third quarter worth about $8,851,000. Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new position in POSCO during the 4th quarter worth $9,223,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in POSCO by 57.3% in 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 buying an additional 154,100 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG increased its stake in shares of POSCO by 135.6% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 199,914 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $10,637,000 after buying an additional 115,069 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in shares of POSCO by 19.6% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 481,595 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $23,353,000 after buying an additional 78,835 shares during the period.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of POSCO in a research report on Monday, December 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, POSCO currently has an average rating of “Hold”.

POSCO Price Performance

NYSE PKX traded down $0.83 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $64.79. 150,026 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 231,488. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $57.51 and a 200-day moving average of $54.22. POSCO has a one year low of $40.80 and a one year high of $67.96. The stock has a market cap of $19.66 billion, a PE ratio of 49.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.36 and a beta of 1.47. The company has a current ratio of 1.96, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25.

POSCO (NYSE:PKX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The basic materials company reported ($0.61) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.45 by ($1.06). The business had revenue of $10.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.85 billion. POSCO had a net margin of 0.97% and a return on equity of 1.09%. On average, equities research analysts predict that POSCO will post 3.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About POSCO

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.