Nucor earnings: third quarter 2026

Nucor, the largest steelmaker in the United States, had a very profitable third quarter of 2026. Sales rose 32% from a year ago to $11.25 billion. Profit more than doubled to $5.80 a share. Higher steel prices did most of the work, while the tons it shipped slipped slightly from the previous quarter. The company turned that profit into plenty of cash, and it expects the fourth quarter to be about as good, or a little better. ¹

Against what analysts expected

Nucor's $5.80 a share came in about 9 cents above the $5.71 average of four analysts' estimates, as collected on Nasdaq's earnings calendar. ¹²

The strong points

• Profit more than doubled from a year ago, to $5.80 a share. ¹
• The profit is arriving as real cash: over nine months, the cash left after running and investing in the business came to $2.66 billion. ¹
• The steel mills, Nucor's core business, produced most of the gain, with a segment result of $1.79 billion against $793 million a year ago. ¹

The weak points

• The growth came mostly from higher prices: tons sold to outside customers fell 1% from the previous quarter. ¹
• The raw materials business slipped, its segment result falling to $105 million from $146 million in the previous quarter. ¹

What the company expects

• For the fourth quarter, Nucor expects earnings about the same as the third quarter, or modestly higher, with no dollar figure given. ¹
• Nucor says its order backlogs run into mid-2027 for many steel products, and into early 2028 for towers and structures. ¹

Our verdict on the quarter

A strong report. An excellent quarter, with profit more than doubled, strong cash and a forecast of steady to slightly higher earnings backed by long order books. It falls short of very strong because the gain rested on prices more than on tons shipped.

The results as published

• The results release itself
• The filing it came with (SEC)

Notes

1. Nucor's results release, 26 October 2026: sec.gov. ↩
2. Nasdaq's earnings calendar, 26 October 2026. ↩