Financial Contrast: Nucor (NYSE:NUE) vs. General Steel (OTCMKTS:GSIH)

Nucor (NYSE:NUE) and General Steel (OTCMKTS:GSIH) are both basic materials companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, dividends, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

76.5% of Nucor shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of Nucor shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 53.3% of General Steel shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Nucor and General Steel, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Nucor	0	2	8	0	2.80
General Steel	0	0	0	0	0.00

Nucor presently has a consensus target price of $157.60, indicating a potential upside of 13.86%. Given Nucor’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Nucor is more favorable than General Steel.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Nucor and General Steel”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Nucor	$30.81 billion	1.03	$2.03 billion	$5.54	24.99
General Steel	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Nucor has higher revenue and earnings than General Steel.

Profitability

This table compares Nucor and General Steel’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Nucor	4.21%	6.65%	4.15%
General Steel	N/A	N/A	N/A

Risk & Volatility

Nucor has a beta of 1.75, suggesting that its stock price is 75% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, General Steel has a beta of -1.14, suggesting that its stock price is 214% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Nucor beats General Steel on 9 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Nucor

Nucor Corporation engages in manufacture and sale of steel and steel products. It operates in three segments: steel mills, steel products, and raw materials. The Steel Mills segment produces hot-rolled, cold-rolled, and galvanized sheet steel products; plate steel products; wide-flange beams, beam blanks, and H-piling and sheet piling structural steel products; bar steel products, such as blooms, billets, concrete reinforcing and merchant bars, and engineered special bar quality products; and engages in the steel trading and rebar distribution businesses. This segment sells its products to steel service centers, fabricators, and manufacturers in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The Steel Products segment offers steel joists and joist girders, steel decks, and galvanized torque tubes for used in solar arrays, hollow structural section steel tubing, electrical conduit, fabricated concrete reinforcing steel, cold finished steel, steel fasteners, steel grating and expanded metal, wire and wire mesh, metal building systems, insulated metal panels, steel racking, overhead doors, and utility towers and structures for communications and energy transmission. This segment is also involved in the piling distribution business. The Raw Materials segment produces direct reduced iron (DRI); brokers ferrous and nonferrous metals, pig iron, hot briquetted iron, and DRI; supplies ferro-alloys; processes ferrous and nonferrous scrap metal; and engages in the natural gas production and industrial gas business. This segment sells its ferrous scrap to electric arc furnace steel mills and foundries for manufacturing process; and nonferrous scrap metal to aluminum can producers, secondary aluminum smelters, steel mills and other processors, and consumers of various nonferrous metals. It markets its products through in-house sales force; and internal distribution and trading companies. Nucor Corporation was founded in 1905 and is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.

About General Steel

General Steel Holdings, Inc. engages in the business of cell research, development, storage, and cell culture service in the People's Republic of China. General Steel Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in 2002 and is headquartered in Beijing, the People's Republic of China.