GAMMA Investing LLC Buys 445,241 Shares of Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD)

GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD - Free Report) by 18,398.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 447,661 shares of the basic materials company's stock after buying an additional 445,241 shares during the quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC owned 0.30% of Steel Dynamics worth $55,993,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of STLD. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Steel Dynamics during the fourth quarter valued at about $336,426,000. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake 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. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Steel Dynamics by 8.7% during 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 buying an additional 451,630 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its stake 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, Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in Steel Dynamics by 17.1% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,775,286 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $202,507,000 after buying an additional 259,361 shares in the last quarter. 82.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Steel Dynamics Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:STLD traded down $1.87 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $134.97. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,191,393 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,539,594. Steel Dynamics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $103.17 and a fifty-two week high of $155.56. The company has a market capitalization of $20.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 2.53 and a quick ratio of 1.08. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $125.62 and its 200-day simple moving average is $127.26.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The basic materials company reported $1.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.40 by $0.04. Steel Dynamics had a return on equity of 17.32% and a net margin of 8.76%. The company had revenue of $4.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.17 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.67 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Steel Dynamics, Inc. will post 9.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Steel Dynamics Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 11th. Investors of record on Monday, June 30th will be given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 30th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.48%. Steel Dynamics's payout ratio is 26.42%.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. KeyCorp upgraded Steel Dynamics from a "sector weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $155.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. UBS Group raised Steel Dynamics from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $149.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Wolfe Research raised Steel Dynamics from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. BMO Capital Markets raised Steel Dynamics from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and raised their target price for the stock from $135.00 to $145.00 in a research report on Monday, March 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $140.00 target price on Steel Dynamics and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $147.44.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Miguel Alvarez sold 7,495 shares of Steel Dynamics stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 125,319 shares in the company, valued at $16,950,647.94. This trade represents a 5.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 6.30% of the company's stock.

Steel Dynamics 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.