POSCO (NYSE:PKX) Short Interest Down 45.7% in June

POSCO (NYSE:PKX) saw a significant decrease in short interest in the month of June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totaling 638,940 shares, a decrease of 45.7% from the May 31st total of 1,177,138 shares. Approximately 0.2% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 473,238 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.4 days.

Institutional Trading of POSCO

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in POSCO by 8.3% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,462 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $307,000 after purchasing an additional 495 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of POSCO by 57.3% during 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 buying an additional 154,100 shares during the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP increased its position in shares of POSCO by 59.2% during the second quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 49,505 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,401,000 after acquiring an additional 18,403 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of POSCO in the 2nd quarter worth about $95,000. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its position in POSCO by 8.0% in the 2nd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 259,374 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $12,577,000 after acquiring an additional 19,312 shares in the last quarter.

POSCO Price Performance

NYSE PKX traded up $2.06 during trading on Thursday, hitting $52.07. 588,945 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 275,548. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $69.30 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $63.04. The company has a market cap of $15.75 billion, a PE ratio of 30.81 and a beta of 1.57. POSCO has a fifty-two week low of $44.99 and a fifty-two week high of $92.40. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28.

POSCO (NYSE:PKX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.12. POSCO had a net margin of 1.19% and a return on equity of 1.34%. The company had revenue of $11.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.75 billion. Research analysts expect that POSCO will post 4.56 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently commented on PKX shares. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of POSCO from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. UBS Group upgraded POSCO from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Wall Street Zen lowered POSCO from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, June 20th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of POSCO from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, June 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

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.