Brokerages Set Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) Price Target at $121.17

Shares of Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD - Get Free Report) have earned an average recommendation of "Hold" from the six ratings firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $121.17.

Several equities analysts have weighed in on STLD shares. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Steel Dynamics from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Steel Dynamics from $120.00 to $119.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Steel Dynamics from $130.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Steel Dynamics from $100.00 to $118.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th.

Institutional Trading of Steel Dynamics

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Steel Dynamics during the 4th quarter worth about $221,817,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics by 165.4% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 2,014,956 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $212,447,000 after purchasing an additional 1,255,751 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics by 105.7% in the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 789,836 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $84,686,000 after purchasing an additional 405,836 shares during the last quarter. Sapient Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Steel Dynamics in the 4th quarter valued at about $38,644,000. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in Steel Dynamics by 29.0% during the 3rd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 997,827 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $106,139,000 after acquiring an additional 224,226 shares during the last quarter. 82.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Steel Dynamics Price Performance

NASDAQ STLD traded up $1.01 on Friday, reaching $134.04. The company had a trading volume of 1,053,963 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,200,926. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $137.39 and its 200 day moving average price is $122.28. Steel Dynamics has a 12 month low of $90.55 and a 12 month high of $151.34. The company has a quick ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 2.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.17 billion, a PE ratio of 9.21 and a beta of 1.42.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The basic materials company reported $3.67 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.54 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $4.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.74 billion. Steel Dynamics had a net margin of 12.89% and a return on equity of 27.62%. The company's quarterly revenue was down 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $4.01 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Steel Dynamics will post 11.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Steel Dynamics Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, April 14th. Stockholders of record on Sunday, March 31st were paid a $0.46 dividend. This is a positive change from Steel Dynamics's previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $1.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.37%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 27th. Steel Dynamics's dividend payout ratio is currently 12.64%.

About Steel Dynamics

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.