Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) Releases Q1 Earnings Guidance

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) updated its first quarter earnings guidance on Monday. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of $1.36-1.40 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.47.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on STLD. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $149.00 price objective (up from $145.00) on shares of Steel Dynamics in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. BNP Paribas raised Steel Dynamics from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on Steel Dynamics in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $155.00 price target on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group raised Steel Dynamics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $125.00 to $145.00 in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, KeyCorp raised Steel Dynamics from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $155.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $148.56.

Steel Dynamics Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ STLD opened at $127.09 on Wednesday. Steel Dynamics has a twelve month low of $104.60 and a twelve month high of $155.56. The firm has a market cap of $19.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.97, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a 50 day moving average of $127.65 and a 200 day moving average of $127.98. 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 quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 22nd. The basic materials company reported $1.36 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by ($0.33). Steel Dynamics had a return on equity of 17.32% and a net margin of 8.76%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.61 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Steel Dynamics will post 9.01 EPS 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. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This is a positive change from Steel Dynamics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.46. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.57%. Steel Dynamics’s payout ratio is currently 20.41%.

Steel Dynamics announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Monday, February 24th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.50 billion in 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 often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Steel Dynamics

In other Steel Dynamics news, SVP Glenn Pushis sold 23,649 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $16,448,593.80. The trade was a 16.22 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 6.00% 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.