U.S. Steel Amends & Extends $1.5B Revolving Credit Facility

United States Steel Corporation (NYSE:X) has successfully completed an extension and amendment of its existing revolving credit facility. This maintains the $1.5 billion maximum facility amount available to the company under the previous credit agreement and extends the scheduled maturity date to February 2023.

Per the company, this is another step in its disciplined strategy to improve the capital structure. Through this move, U.S. Steel is not only able to improve both the flexibility and efficiency of this facility but also extend the term.

Notably, U.S. Steel ended 2017 with cash and cash equivalents of $1,553 million, up roughly 2.5% year over year and the company’s long-term debt decreased roughly 9.4% to $2,700 million. Cash flow from operations for 2017 increased 9.7% to $802 million.

Shares of U.S. Steel have gained 40.5% in the last three months, significantly outperforming the industry’s 15.2% growth.

U.S. Steel swung to a profit in fourth-quarter 2017, helped by benefits of the investments in its assets. The steel giant reported net earnings of $159 million or 90 cents per share in the quarter against net loss of $105 million or 61 cents recorded a year ago. Adjusted earnings of 76 cents per share surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 68 cents.

U.S. Steel stated that its focus in 2018 will be on improving the fundamental drivers of business including quality, delivery, cost and safety. The company expects the performance momentum it witnessed last year to continue in 2018.

Zacks Rank & Other Stocks to Consider

U.S. Steel currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

Some other top-ranked stocks in the basic materials space are Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) , Westlake Chemical Corporation (NYSE:WLK) and CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CF) , each flaunting a Zacks Rank #1. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Steel Dynamics has an expected long-term earnings growth rate of 12%. Its shares have soared 39.2% over the last six months.

Westlake Chemical has an expected long-term earnings growth rate of 12.2%. Its shares have moved up 48.1% over the past six months.

CF Industries has an expected long-term earnings growth rate of 8%. Its shares have rallied 40.7% over the last six months.

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