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Old 12-02-2005, 11:03 AM
DesertCat DesertCat is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Scottsdale, Arizona
Posts: 224
Default Re: Evaluate a noob\'s Investopedia portfolio and ideas please?

Why is Nucor listed twice at different "book values"? Is that actually aquisition values?

My one quick comment is that I looked briefly at US Steel in relation to another steel company I'm buy and I was shocked at how cheap it was (it was at a 4 PE). Then I estimated that it basically hadn't made money over the last five years, and it was less surprising.

In U.S. Steel's case (and maybe Nucor as well) I'm pretty sure it's benefited in the last few years from import tariffs, and I'm not sure they are still there. That also might be why they are so cheap.

You should research that and make a decision on what you think about their business, i.e how much true profit they can make in the future after capital re-investment. I've always been told that steel is a terrible business in general (due to high capital requirements and high U.S. labor costs), and only the exceptions (which might be Nucor, usually viewed as a premium co.) are worth holding. Even they might not be worth holding now if pricing is going down due to tariff changes. What I've been told may be out of date as well, i.e. labor costs may be more reasonable now.
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