Townsquare Capital LLC Grows Stake in Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD)

Townsquare Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) by 6.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,130 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 128 shares during the period. Townsquare Capital LLC’s holdings in Steel Dynamics were worth $243,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on STLD. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Steel Dynamics from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $145.00 to $158.00 in a report on Friday, March 7th. KeyCorp raised shares of Steel Dynamics from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $155.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Wolfe Research raised Steel Dynamics from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Steel Dynamics from $140.00 to $135.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised 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 research note on Monday, March 31st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Steel Dynamics has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $149.11.

Steel Dynamics Stock Performance

Shares of STLD opened at $117.39 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $124.67 and a 200-day simple moving average of $128.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 2.53. Steel Dynamics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $103.17 and a 1 year high of $155.56. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.60 billion, a PE ratio of 11.98, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.35.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The basic materials company reported $1.44 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.40 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $4.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.17 billion. Steel Dynamics had a return on equity of 17.32% and a net margin of 8.76%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.67 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Steel Dynamics, Inc. will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Steel Dynamics Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st were issued a $0.50 dividend. This is an increase from Steel Dynamics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.46. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 31st. Steel Dynamics’s payout ratio is presently 20.41%.

Steel Dynamics declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Monday, February 24th that allows the company to buyback $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the basic materials company to buy up to 7.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Glenn Pushis sold 23,649 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 122,140 shares in the company, valued at $16,448,593.80. This represents a 16.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate 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.