shares of nucor corp rallied to a new alltime high on thursday after the steelmaker reported a continued surge in profits and forecast record earnings ahead the charlotte nc company posted a profit of 21 billion or 767 a share for its fiscal first quarter ended april 2 up from 9424 million or 310 a share a year earlier sales surged about 50 to 1049 billion from 702 billion amid strong enduse market demand for steel and steel products analysts polled by factset were on average expecting nucor to report earnings of 732 a share on sales of 1058 billion nucor said the latest period marked most profitable first quarter in the companys history it said it expects the current quarter will be its most profitable ever topping the 225 billion the company earned in the final quarter of 2021 nucor shares were recently changing hands at 18422 up 88 after earlier touching 18581the highest level since the company went public in 1972