Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) Shares Purchased by Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada grew its holdings in shares of Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD - Free Report) by 73.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 351,571 shares of the basic materials company's stock after buying an additional 148,719 shares during the quarter. Royal Bank of Canada owned 0.23% of Steel Dynamics worth $40,103,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Foster & Motley Inc. raised its stake in shares of 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. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management boosted its holdings in Steel Dynamics by 9.1% during the 4th quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 27,373 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $3,123,000 after acquiring an additional 2,287 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased 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 worth $433,000 after purchasing an additional 1,119 shares during the period. Swedbank AB increased 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 worth $24,990,000 after purchasing an additional 9,462 shares during the period. Finally, MFG Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Steel Dynamics during the fourth quarter worth $1,337,000. Institutional investors own 82.41% of the company's stock.

Steel Dynamics Stock Performance

Shares of STLD stock traded down $0.00 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $128.74. The stock had a trading volume of 197,116 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,521,830. Steel Dynamics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $103.17 and a 1-year high of $155.56. The firm has a market cap of $19.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.13, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a current ratio of 2.53, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The business's fifty day moving average is $125.35 and its 200-day moving average is $127.70.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The basic materials company reported $1.44 EPS 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 firm had revenue of $4.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.17 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.67 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Steel Dynamics, Inc. will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Steel Dynamics Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 30th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 30th. Steel Dynamics's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 26.42%.

Steel Dynamics announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback 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 have commented on STLD shares. UBS Group upgraded shares of Steel Dynamics from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $149.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Wall Street Zen lowered Steel Dynamics from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Steel Dynamics from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. KeyCorp raised Steel Dynamics from a "sector weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $155.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised Steel Dynamics from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and increased their price target for the stock from $135.00 to $145.00 in a research report on Monday, March 31st. One 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $147.44.

Insider Transactions at Steel Dynamics

In related news, SVP Miguel Alvarez sold 7,495 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.26, for a total transaction of $1,013,773.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 125,319 shares in the company, valued at $16,950,647.94. The trade was a 5.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 6.30% 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.