This week, I'm looking for the seventh materials representative of nine for my Ivy portfolio.

That basic materials sector has thirteen industries all related to mining, making, and delivering essential commodities. They are: agricultural inputs; aluminum; building materials; chemicals; coal; copper; industrial metals; gold; paper; silver; specialty chemicals; steel.

Today I'm reviewing a large-cap steel company named Nucor Corp. Their trading ticker symbol is NUE. I last reported on this company on May 8th.

The largest steelmaker in the United States by production volume, Nucor uses electric arc furnaces to produce a wide variety of steel products that service all major end markets.

Nucor is involved in every phase of the steelmaking value chain, from collecting and processing scrap to manufacturing value-added fabricated steel products.

The company offers its products through its in-house sales forces; and internal distribution and trading companies. The company was founded in 1940 and is based in Charlotte, North Carolina.

I use three key data points to gauge dividend-paying equities or funds like Nucor Corp:

(1) Price

(2) Dividends

(3) Returns

Besides those three, several other keys will finally unlock an equity or fund in which to invest.

Those three basic keys, however, best tell whether a company has made, is making, and will make money.

NUE Price

Nucor's price per share closed at $56.35 yesterday. A year ago its price was $67.82. Price fell $11.47 or near 17% in the past year.

Assuming Nucor's stock trades in the range of $45.00 to $65.00 this year, Nucor's recent $56.35 price could rise by $2.65 and go to $59.00 by late-July, 2020.

NUE Dividends

Nucor's most recent quarterly annual dividend is $0.40 payable August 9th.

That $0.40 Q payout equates to an annual dividend of $1.60 generating a yield of 2.84% based on yesterday's $56.35 closing price.

Gains For NUE?

Adding the $1.60 annual estimated dividend to my $2.65 estimate of Nucor's price upside shows a $4.25 potential gross annual gain, per share, which will be reduced by costs to trade those shares.

Say we pay a little over $1,000.00 today at the $56.35 recent stock price, we'd buy 18 Nucor Corp shares.

A $10 broker fee paid half at purchase and half at sale will cost us $0.56 per share.

Subtract that $0.56 brokerage cost from the estimated $4.25 gross annual gain leaves a net gain of $3.68 X 18 shares = $66.24 or a 6.6% net gain on a $1,014.30 investment.

Therefore, Nucor Corp whose trading ticker symbol is NUE now shows a possible net gain of 6.6% including a 2.64% dividend yield.

Fifteen brokers track Nucor Corp stock:

Six say "Buy" NUE.

Three say NUE will "Outperform" its peers.

Four say "Hold" your NUE Shares.

Two says NUE will "Underperform" its peers.

Their consensus score of 2.13 equates to "outperform."

Now we can look at Nucor Corp and see it has made money, is making money, and could net a 6.6% gain including a 2.64% dividend yield. It could be more, it could be less.

The above speculation is based on past year performance. The actual results remain to be seen to learn if  Nucor Corp is worth your time and money.