Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) Given New $150.00 Price Target at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) had its target price lifted by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $138.00 to $150.00 in a research report sent to investors on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has a neutral rating on the basic materials company’s stock.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on STLD. BMO Capital Markets upgraded Steel Dynamics from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $135.00 to $145.00 in a research report on Monday, March 31st. UBS Group upgraded 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. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Steel Dynamics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective 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. 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $149.33.

Steel Dynamics Stock Performance

Shares of Steel Dynamics stock opened at $133.22 on Monday. Steel Dynamics has a fifty-two week low of $103.17 and a fifty-two week high of $155.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 2.74 and a quick ratio of 1.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.60, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.37. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $131.70 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $127.06.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The basic materials company reported $1.44 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.40 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $4.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.17 billion. Steel Dynamics had a net margin of 6.80% and a return on equity of 13.26%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.67 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Steel Dynamics will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Steel Dynamics Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 11th. Investors of record on Monday, June 30th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.50%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 30th. Steel Dynamics’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.42%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Miguel Alvarez sold 7,495 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the senior vice president owned 125,319 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Gabriel Shaheen sold 1,254 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owned 81,812 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,971,807.32. This represents a 1.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 6.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Steel Dynamics

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in STLD. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Steel Dynamics by 25.5% in the 1st 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 acquiring an additional 1,437,897 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Steel Dynamics by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,688,494 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $419,697,000 after purchasing an additional 30,350 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics by 29.4% in 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 last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Steel Dynamics by 14.1% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 3,179,062 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $362,636,000 after purchasing an additional 393,516 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Steel Dynamics during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $336,426,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.41% 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.