Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) Given Consensus Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by Brokerages

Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD - Get Free Report) has been assigned an average rating of "Moderate Buy" from the eleven research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $147.44.

STLD has been the topic of several analyst reports. KeyCorp upgraded Steel Dynamics from a "sector weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $155.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Morgan Stanley set a $140.00 price objective on Steel Dynamics and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Steel Dynamics from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. UBS Group upgraded Steel Dynamics from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $149.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Steel Dynamics from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th.

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 that occurred on Tuesday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.26, for a total transaction of $1,013,773.70. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 125,319 shares in the company, valued at $16,950,647.94. This represents a 5.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 6.30% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Steel Dynamics

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of STLD. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of Steel Dynamics by 21.8% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 448,942 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $56,603,000 after buying an additional 80,262 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Steel Dynamics by 24.3% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 4,530 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $571,000 after buying an additional 886 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Steel Dynamics by 74.5% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 18,570 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $2,118,000 after buying an additional 7,928 shares during the period. Forsta AP Fonden raised its holdings in shares of Steel Dynamics by 20.7% in the fourth quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 37,900 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $4,323,000 after buying an additional 6,500 shares during the period. Finally, Swedbank AB raised its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 9,462 shares during the period. 82.41% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Steel Dynamics Stock Performance

Shares of STLD traded up $12.64 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $135.71. The stock had a trading volume of 3,300,608 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,536,000. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 2.53 and a quick ratio of 1.08. Steel Dynamics has a 12 month low of $103.17 and a 12 month high of $155.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.15 billion, a PE ratio of 13.85, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.44. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $125.29 and a 200 day moving average price of $127.22.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The basic materials company reported $1.44 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.67 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Steel Dynamics will post 9.01 EPS for the current year.

Steel Dynamics announced that its Board of Directors has initiated 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 usually an indication that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Steel Dynamics Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared 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 yield of 1.47%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 30th. Steel Dynamics's payout ratio is presently 26.42%.

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.