Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) Upgraded at Wells Fargo & Company

Key Points

• Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) received a "strong-buy" rating upgrade from Wells Fargo & Company, indicating positive sentiment among analysts.
• JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley also adjusted their price targets for Steel Dynamics, raising them to $150.00 and $145.00 respectively, while the company has a consensus target price of $148.70.
• Despite the upgrades, Steel Dynamics reported lower earnings for the last quarter, with an EPS of $2.01, missing estimates of $2.05 and showing a 1.5% decline in revenue year-over-year.

Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD - Free Report) to a strong-buy rating in a report released on Thursday morning,Zacks.com reports.

STLD has been the topic of a number of other reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Steel Dynamics from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, June 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Steel Dynamics from $138.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Steel Dynamics from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Steel Dynamics has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $148.70.

Steel Dynamics Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ STLD traded down $2.77 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $125.45. 1,218,652 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,619,471. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $129.36 and a 200 day moving average price of $128.20. The company has a market cap of $18.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.29, a PEG ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 3.13 and a quick ratio of 1.34. Steel Dynamics has a 52 week low of $103.17 and a 52 week high of $155.56.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, July 21st. The basic materials company reported $2.01 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.05 by ($0.04). Steel Dynamics had a net margin of 6.07% and a return on equity of 11.88%. The company had revenue of $4.57 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.82 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.72 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Steel Dynamics will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Steel Dynamics Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 10th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 30th will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 30th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.6%. Steel Dynamics's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.15%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Steel Dynamics news, Director Gabriel Shaheen sold 1,254 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.11, for a total value of $168,173.94. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 81,812 shares of the company's stock, valued at $10,971,807.32. The trade was a 1.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Christopher A. Graham sold 12,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.71, for a total transaction of $1,520,520.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 66,738 shares in the company, valued at $8,456,371.98. This represents a 15.24% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 6.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Steel Dynamics

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Steel Dynamics by 3.3% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,300,813 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $938,196,000 after purchasing an additional 230,582 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in Steel Dynamics by 25.5% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 7,066,300 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $883,854,000 after purchasing an additional 1,437,897 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position 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 worth $409,816,000 after purchasing an additional 815,629 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position 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 worth $362,636,000 after purchasing an additional 393,516 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Steel Dynamics during the second quarter worth approximately $339,769,000. 82.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.