Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Has $948,000 Position in Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD)

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. trimmed its position in Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD - Free Report) by 49.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 8,315 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 8,131 shares during the period. Jefferies Financial Group Inc.'s holdings in Steel Dynamics were worth $948,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Foster & Motley Inc. boosted its stake in Steel Dynamics by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. Foster & Motley Inc. now owns 35,299 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $4,027,000 after acquiring an additional 2,602 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its stake in Steel Dynamics by 41.8% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 3,794 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $433,000 after acquiring an additional 1,119 shares during the period. Swedbank AB boosted its stake in Steel Dynamics by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 219,076 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $24,990,000 after acquiring an additional 9,462 shares during the period. MFG Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in Steel Dynamics in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,337,000. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Steel Dynamics by 74.5% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 18,570 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $2,118,000 after acquiring an additional 7,928 shares during the period. 82.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Steel Dynamics Price Performance

STLD traded up $12.64 during trading on Monday, reaching $135.71. The stock had a trading volume of 3,316,684 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,536,116. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 2.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Steel Dynamics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $103.17 and a 1-year high of $155.56. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $125.44 and a two-hundred day moving average of $127.19.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD - Get Free Report) 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 the consensus estimate of $1.40 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $4.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $4.17 billion. Steel Dynamics had a return on equity of 17.32% and a net margin of 8.76%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.67 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Steel Dynamics, Inc. will post 9.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Steel Dynamics Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Steel Dynamics

In other Steel Dynamics news, SVP Miguel Alvarez sold 7,495 shares of the company'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 transaction, the senior vice president now 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 6.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on STLD. KeyCorp upgraded Steel Dynamics from a "sector weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $155.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. UBS Group upgraded 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 upgraded Steel Dynamics from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Steel Dynamics from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Steel Dynamics from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Steel Dynamics has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $147.44.

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.