Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec Cuts Holdings in Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD)

Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec lessened its position in shares of Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) by 84.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 130,768 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 690,157 shares during the period. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec’s holdings in Steel Dynamics were worth $14,917,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Harbour Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Steel Dynamics by 133.7% during the 4th quarter. Harbour Capital Advisors LLC now owns 11,499 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,301,000 after purchasing an additional 6,579 shares during the period. Oak Thistle LLC purchased a new stake in Steel Dynamics during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,725,000. Foster & Motley Inc. increased its position in shares of Steel Dynamics by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. Foster & Motley Inc. now owns 35,299 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,027,000 after acquiring an additional 2,602 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics by 22.4% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,384,526 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $158,487,000 after acquiring an additional 253,802 shares during the period. Finally, Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management lifted its holdings in shares of Steel Dynamics by 9.1% during the 4th quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 27,373 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,123,000 after acquiring an additional 2,287 shares in the last quarter. 82.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Steel Dynamics Stock Up 3.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:STLD opened at $134.94 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $20.23 billion, a PE ratio of 13.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $123.66 and a 200 day simple moving average of $128.21. 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, Inc. has a 12-month low of $103.17 and a 12-month high of $155.56.

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

Steel Dynamics announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Monday, February 24th that allows the company to buyback $1.50 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the basic materials company to buy up to 7.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Steel Dynamics Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 30th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 30th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.48%. Steel Dynamics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 26.42%.

Insider Activity 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 owns 122,140 shares in the company, valued at $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 is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 6.30% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have commented on the company. Morgan Stanley set a $140.00 price objective on Steel Dynamics and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Wolfe Research raised Steel Dynamics from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. StockNews.com cut Steel Dynamics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Steel Dynamics from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, KeyCorp raised shares of 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $147.44.

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.