Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) Stake Reduced by Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS reduced its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) by 3.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 30,106 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 1,133 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s holdings in Steel Dynamics were worth $3,434,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new position in Steel Dynamics during the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. ORG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in Steel Dynamics during the 4th quarter worth $28,000. Private Trust Co. NA grew its stake in Steel Dynamics by 532.6% during the 3rd quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 291 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 245 shares during the last quarter. IAG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in Steel Dynamics during the 4th quarter worth $39,000. Finally, Avalon Trust Co bought a new position in Steel Dynamics during the 4th quarter worth $42,000. 82.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on STLD. KeyCorp raised Steel Dynamics from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $155.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Steel Dynamics from $132.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Steel Dynamics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $125.00 to $145.00 in a research note on Friday, January 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Steel Dynamics in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $155.00 price target for the company. Finally, Wolfe Research raised Steel Dynamics from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $148.56.

Steel Dynamics Trading Down 3.1 %

Shares of STLD stock opened at $122.67 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $128.22 and a 200 day simple moving average of $128.20. Steel Dynamics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $104.60 and a fifty-two week high of $155.56. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.52, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 2.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The basic materials company reported $1.36 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.69 by ($0.33). Steel Dynamics had a net margin of 8.76% and a return on equity of 17.32%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.61 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Steel Dynamics, Inc. will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Steel Dynamics Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.63%. This is an increase from Steel Dynamics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.46. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. Steel Dynamics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.41%.

Steel Dynamics announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Monday, February 24th that allows the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the basic materials company to purchase up to 7.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Glenn Pushis sold 23,649 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.67, for a total transaction of $3,184,810.83. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 122,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,448,593.80. This represents a 16.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 6.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.