United States Steel (X) Competitors

United States Steel (NYSE:X) and Nucor (NYSE:NUE) are both basic materials companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, institutional ownership, profitability, community ranking, earnings, media sentiment, dividends, risk and analyst recommendations.

Do insiders & institutionals have more ownership in X or NUE?

81.9% of United States Steel shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 76.5% of Nucor shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.0% of United States Steel shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Nucor shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Do analysts rate X or NUE?

United States Steel currently has a consensus target price of $39.82, indicating a potential upside of 7.84%. Nucor has a consensus target price of $163.13, indicating a potential upside of 20.67%. Given Nucor's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Nucor is more favorable than United States Steel.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
United States Steel	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	6 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.75
Nucor	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.78

Which has more volatility & risk, X or NUE?

United States Steel has a beta of 1.86, indicating that its stock price is 86% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nucor has a beta of 1.6, indicating that its stock price is 60% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media refer more to X or NUE?

In the previous week, Nucor had 18 more articles in the media than United States Steel. MarketBeat recorded 24 mentions for Nucor and 6 mentions for United States Steel. Nucor's average media sentiment score of 1.09 beat United States Steel's score of 0.95 indicating that Nucor is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
United States Steel	3 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Nucor	13 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	7 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer X or NUE?

United States Steel received 231 more outperform votes than Nucor when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 64.28% of users gave Nucor an outperform vote while only 55.54% of users gave United States Steel an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
United States Steel	Outperform Votes 922 55.54%	Underperform Votes 738 44.46%
Nucor	Outperform Votes 691 64.28%	Underperform Votes 384 35.72%

Is X or NUE a better dividend stock?

United States Steel pays an annual dividend of $0.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. Nucor pays an annual dividend of $2.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. United States Steel pays out 13.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Nucor pays out 26.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Nucor has increased its dividend for 52 consecutive years. Nucor is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Which has higher valuation and earnings, X or NUE?

Nucor has higher revenue and earnings than United States Steel. Nucor is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than United States Steel, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
United States Steel	$15.64B	0.53	$384M	$1.49	24.78
Nucor	$30.73B	1.03	$2.03B	$8.41	16.07

Is X or NUE more profitable?

Nucor has a net margin of 6.60% compared to United States Steel's net margin of 2.46%. Nucor's return on equity of 9.85% beat United States Steel's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
United States Steel	2.46%	4.27%	2.40%
Nucor	6.60%	9.85%	6.25%

Summary

Nucor beats United States Steel on 15 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.