Lord Abbett & CO. LLC Raises Stock Position in Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD)

Lord Abbett & CO. LLC raised its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) by 17.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,192,552 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 173,884 shares during the period. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC owned 0.78% of Steel Dynamics worth $136,034,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Steel Dynamics during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $336,426,000. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in shares of Steel Dynamics by 29.4% during 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 in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in Steel Dynamics by 8.7% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,628,403 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $642,033,000 after purchasing an additional 451,630 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Steel Dynamics by 14.1% in the 4th 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, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in Steel Dynamics by 22.4% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,384,526 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $158,487,000 after purchasing an additional 253,802 shares during the last quarter. 82.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on STLD. Morgan Stanley set a $140.00 price target on shares of Steel Dynamics and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. 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 report on Tuesday, February 11th. BNP Paribas raised Steel Dynamics from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. BMO Capital Markets raised Steel Dynamics from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $135.00 to $145.00 in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Steel Dynamics from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $147.44.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Steel Dynamics news, SVP Glenn Pushis sold 23,649 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.67, for a total value of $3,184,810.83. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 122,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,448,593.80. This trade represents a 16.22 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 6.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Steel Dynamics Price Performance

Steel Dynamics stock opened at $127.38 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 2.53. The company has a market capitalization of $19.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.35. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $124.24 and its 200-day simple moving average is $128.17. Steel Dynamics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $103.17 and a 1 year high of $155.56.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The basic materials company reported $1.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.40 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $4.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.17 billion. Steel Dynamics had a return on equity of 17.32% and a net margin of 8.76%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.67 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Steel Dynamics, Inc. will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Steel Dynamics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 11th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st were issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 31st. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.57%. This is a boost from Steel Dynamics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.46. Steel Dynamics’s payout ratio is 20.41%.

Steel Dynamics announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase 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 repurchase up to 7.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Steel Dynamics Company Profile

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.