Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) Shares Acquired by Rafferty Asset Management LLC

Rafferty Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) by 11.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 12,304 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 1,228 shares during the quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Steel Dynamics were worth $1,404,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Atomi Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Steel Dynamics by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,929 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $220,000 after purchasing an additional 91 shares during the period. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Steel Dynamics by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 3,200 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $366,000 after purchasing an additional 101 shares during the period. OneAscent Financial Services LLC lifted its holdings in Steel Dynamics by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. OneAscent Financial Services LLC now owns 4,605 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $527,000 after purchasing an additional 101 shares during the period. Center For Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Steel Dynamics by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Center For Asset Management LLC now owns 3,252 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $371,000 after purchasing an additional 113 shares during the period. Finally, Cidel Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Steel Dynamics by 6.2% in the 4th quarter. Cidel Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,036 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $232,000 after acquiring an additional 118 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

STLD has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group raised shares of Steel Dynamics from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $149.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, March 24th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Steel Dynamics from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Steel Dynamics from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $135.00 to $145.00 in a report on Monday, March 31st. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Steel Dynamics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $125.00 to $145.00 in a report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $140.00 price target on shares of Steel Dynamics and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $147.44.

Steel Dynamics Price Performance

STLD stock opened at $135.38 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.53, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Steel Dynamics, Inc. has a one year low of $103.17 and a one year high of $155.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.10 billion, a PE ratio of 13.81, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.44. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $125.20 and a two-hundred day moving average of $128.25.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 8.76% and a return on equity of 17.32%. The company had revenue of $4.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.17 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.67 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Steel Dynamics, Inc. will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Steel Dynamics Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 11th. Shareholders 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 1.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 30th. Steel Dynamics’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.42%.

Steel Dynamics declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Monday, February 24th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the basic materials company to buy up to 7.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Steel Dynamics

In other news, SVP Miguel Alvarez sold 7,495 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.26, for a total value of $1,013,773.70. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 125,319 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,950,647.94. This represents a 5.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 6.30% of the company’s stock.

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.