Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) Price Target Raised to $145.00

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) had its price target hoisted by Morgan Stanley from $140.00 to $145.00 in a report published on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the basic materials company’s stock.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on STLD. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Steel Dynamics from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Wolfe Research upgraded Steel Dynamics from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Wall Street Zen cut Steel Dynamics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. UBS Group upgraded Steel Dynamics from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $149.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upgraded Steel Dynamics from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $135.00 to $145.00 in a research note on Monday, March 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $148.00.

Steel Dynamics Stock Performance

Steel Dynamics stock opened at $125.90 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.63, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.38. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $129.11 and a 200 day moving average price of $126.13. Steel Dynamics has a 52 week low of $103.17 and a 52 week high of $155.56. The company has a current ratio of 2.74, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The basic materials company reported $1.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.40 by $0.04. Steel Dynamics had a return on equity of 13.26% and a net margin of 6.80%. The firm had revenue of $4.37 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.17 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.67 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Steel Dynamics will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Steel Dynamics declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Monday, February 24th that allows the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the basic materials company to repurchase up to 7.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Steel Dynamics Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 11th. Investors of record on Monday, June 30th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.59%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 30th. Steel Dynamics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 26.42%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Gabriel Shaheen sold 1,254 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.11, for a total transaction of $168,173.94. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 81,812 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,971,807.32. This trade represents a 1.51% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Miguel Alvarez sold 7,495 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.26, for a total value of $1,013,773.70. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 125,319 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,950,647.94. This represents a 5.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 6.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Steel Dynamics

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of Steel Dynamics by 25.5% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 7,066,300 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $883,854,000 after buying an additional 1,437,897 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Steel Dynamics by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,688,494 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $419,697,000 after acquiring an additional 30,350 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in Steel Dynamics by 29.4% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 3,592,670 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $409,816,000 after buying an additional 815,629 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its holdings in Steel Dynamics by 14.1% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 3,179,062 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $362,636,000 after buying an additional 393,516 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Steel Dynamics during the fourth quarter valued at about $336,426,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.41% of the company’s stock.

Steel Dynamics Company Profile

Steel Dynamics, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a steel producer and metal recycler in the United States. The Steel Operations segment offers hot rolled, cold rolled, and coated steel products; parallel flange beams and channel sections, flat bars, large unequal leg angles, and reinforcing steel bars, as well as standard strength carbon, intermediate alloy hardness, and premium grade rail products; engineered special-bar-quality products, merchant-bar-quality products, and other engineered round steel bars; channels, angles, flats, merchant rounds, and reinforcing steel bars; and specialty shapes and light structural steel products.