Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) to Issue $0.50 Quarterly Dividend

Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, April 28th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, June 30th will be given a dividend of 0.50 per share by the basic materials company on Friday, July 11th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 30th.

Steel Dynamics has a dividend payout ratio of 16.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Steel Dynamics to earn $12.10 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 16.5%.

Steel Dynamics Price Performance

Steel Dynamics stock opened at $129.28 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $123.71 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $128.15. Steel Dynamics has a 12 month low of $103.17 and a 12 month high of $155.56. The company has a market capitalization of $19.38 billion, a PE ratio of 13.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a current ratio of 2.53, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The basic materials company reported $1.44 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.40 by $0.04. Steel Dynamics had a net margin of 8.76% and a return on equity of 17.32%. The business had revenue of $4.37 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.17 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.67 EPS. Analysts expect that Steel Dynamics will post 9.01 EPS for the current year.

Steel Dynamics declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program 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 programs are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on STLD. Morgan Stanley set a $140.00 target price on shares of Steel Dynamics and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. StockNews.com lowered Steel Dynamics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. 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. Jefferies Financial Group raised Steel Dynamics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $125.00 to $145.00 in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Steel Dynamics from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Steel Dynamics presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $147.44.

Insider Activity at Steel Dynamics

In related news, SVP Glenn Pushis sold 23,649 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 6.30% of the stock is owned by 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.