Nucor CEO on Earnings, Economy

Steel Resolve?

Cramer tells you where to turn in this uncertain market, with with Dan DiMicco, Nucor Coproration chairman/CEO.

“Nucor is the best-of-breed way to play the stabilization in the steel markets,” Cramer said Thursday.

The company is a vertically integrated, low-cost producer that uses scrap steel rather than iron ore to make its steel, and Nucor is led by one of Cramer’s favorite CEOs in the country: Dan DiMicco.

The quarter that Nucor reported this morning made Cramer even more confident in the stock, he said. Earnings beat consensus estimates by 3 cents a share, the average price per ton jumped 14% sequentially, and total steel shipments grew 53% year-over-year. The balance sheet is healthy, too, with $1.14 billion in cash and $1.3 billion in an untapped revolving credit facility.

Now Nucor also talked about a slowdown given economic uncertainty, but with the stock down 21% from its 2010 high of just under $50, Cramer thinks NUE is a bargain. Though admittedly it could take “a couple of quarters … to work,” he said. But to be sure, and to get an insider’s read on the US business environment, he invited CEO Dan DiMicco onto Mad Money. Watch the video for the full interview.

When this story pubished, Cramer’s charitable trust owned Nucor.

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