HOWMET AEROSPACE INC. vs NUCOR CORPORATION, two Steel stocks. A side-by-side on valuation, growth, margins, returns, and what each price is betting.
Howmet Aerospace's engineered components earn a 31.58% return on equity, the best in this group, against Nucor's 10.34% on commodity steel, and the market pays the difference: 62 times earnings and 19.6 times book for Howmet against Nucor's 23.8 and 2.44. Howmet's 20.22% net margin triples Nucor's 6.82%, the reward for making mission-critical aerospace parts rather than construction steel. Nucor is the larger by revenue and the model commodity operator; Howmet the higher-return specialist. The pair contrasts engineered value with commodity scale: Howmet charges for precision the aerospace primes cannot source elsewhere, Nucor for efficiency in a market where steel is steel, and the valuation gap measures that pricing power precisely.
Comparison updated 2026-07-11.
| Metric | HWM | NUE |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $268.74 | $239.59 |
| Market cap | $108.3B | $54.9B |
| Sector | Steel | Steel |
| Stage | Cyclical | Cyclical |
| Implied growth (priced in) | — | +20.7% |
| P/E | 62.4 | 23.8 |
| P/B | 19.61 | 2.44 |
| P/S | 12.56 | 1.61 |
| EV/EBITDA | 42.6 | 42.5 |
| Revenue growth | +14.2% | +12.3% |
| Operating margin | 32.6% | — |
| Net margin | 20.2% | 6.8% |
| Return on equity | 31.6% | 10.3% |
| Return on assets | 13.3% | 6.5% |
| Return on invested capital | 18.5% | — |
| FCF yield | 1.5% | 1.0% |
| Dividend yield | 0.2% | 0.9% |
| Debt / equity | 0.85 | 0.01 |
| Current ratio | 2.44 | 2.90 |
| Altman Z (solvency) | 7.65 | 5.01 |
| Piotroski F (quality) | 4 / 9 | 8 / 9 |
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The stronger value is highlighted per metric where one is strictly better on that single number; it is not an overall verdict on either company. For informational and research purposes only. Not investment advice. Not a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. boothcheck is not a registered investment adviser. Past performance does not guarantee future results.