Stop me if you've heard this one before - it's close to the end of a quarter and a trio of the U.S.'s largest steel companies, Steel Dynamics (Nasdaq:STLD), Nucor (NYSE:NUE) and AK Steel (NYSE:AKS), have revised guidance lower. This has been an all-too-common phenomenon recently, even if investors still seem relatively confident about full-year performance. Although there is still a case to make that some individual steel stocks are too cheap today, it's worth wondering how many disappointments the sector will absorb before investors lose confidence. (For more, see Earning Forecasts: A Primer.)
A Trio of Cuts
Within about 24 hours of each other, Nucor, AK Steel and Steel Dynamics all substantially lowered their guidance for first quarter earnings. Steel Dynamics dropped guidance by about 50% relative to prior expectations and Nucor's revision was similar in magnitude. For AK Steel, the magnitude of the revision was similar to Steel Dynamics in terms of cents per share (about 16 cents), but also means a quarterly loss instead of the expected profits.
Click this link for more:
http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2012/Another-Mid-Quarter-Disappointment-In-Steel-STLD-NUE-AKS-AA0320.aspx
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