Focus Partners Wealth Purchases New Stake in Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD)

Focus Partners Wealth purchased a new stake in Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 5,708 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $654,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in Steel Dynamics by 8.7% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,628,403 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $642,033,000 after acquiring an additional 451,630 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Steel Dynamics by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,688,494 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $419,697,000 after acquiring an additional 30,350 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its position in Steel Dynamics by 29.4% in 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 acquiring an additional 815,629 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP grew its position in Steel Dynamics by 14.1% in 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 acquiring an additional 393,516 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Steel Dynamics in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $336,426,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.41% of the company's stock.

Steel Dynamics Stock Performance

Shares of STLD opened at $136.06 on Tuesday. Steel Dynamics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $103.17 and a 1 year high of $155.56. The company has a market cap of $20.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 2.53. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $124.96 and a 200-day moving average of $128.20.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The basic materials company reported $1.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.40 by $0.04. Steel Dynamics had a net margin of 8.76% and a return on equity of 17.32%. The company 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 company posted $3.67 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Steel Dynamics, Inc. will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Steel Dynamics announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Monday, February 24th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the basic materials company to purchase up to 7.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Steel Dynamics Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 11th. Investors of record on Monday, June 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 30th. Steel Dynamics's dividend payout ratio is currently 26.42%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on STLD shares. KeyCorp raised shares of Steel Dynamics from a "sector weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $155.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Steel Dynamics from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Steel Dynamics from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and raised their price target for the stock from $135.00 to $145.00 in a research report on Monday, March 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Steel Dynamics from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Steel Dynamics from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price target for the stock from $125.00 to $145.00 in a research report on Friday, January 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $147.44.

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.

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