Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) Raised to Strong-Buy at Wall Street Zen

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) was upgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued on Saturday, Wall Street Zen reports.

STLD has been the topic of a number of other research reports. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Steel Dynamics in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. Barclays upped their target price on Steel Dynamics from $270.00 to $272.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. UBS Group raised their price target on Steel Dynamics from $165.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Steel Dynamics from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Steel Dynamics from $260.00 to $273.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 9th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Steel Dynamics presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $258.45.

Steel Dynamics Price Performance

STLD stock opened at $239.79 on Friday. Steel Dynamics has a 1-year low of $129.41 and a 1-year high of $288.74. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $242.94 and its 200 day simple moving average is $226.92. The company has a current ratio of 3.18, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $34.37 billion, a PE ratio of 21.74, a PEG ratio of 0.44 and a beta of 1.50.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 21st. The basic materials company reported $3.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.63 by $0.06. Steel Dynamics had a return on equity of 18.12% and a net margin of 7.83%.The business had revenue of $6.09 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.56 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.01 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 33.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Steel Dynamics will post 17.8 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Steel Dynamics

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of STLD. Baird Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics by 9.9% in the 2nd quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 187,906 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $43,117,000 after acquiring an additional 16,930 shares during the last quarter. Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan grew its position in Steel Dynamics by 70.5% during the 4th quarter. Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan now owns 11,692 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,981,000 after acquiring an additional 4,835 shares during the last quarter. Sapient Capital LLC increased its holdings in Steel Dynamics by 34.6% in the 2nd quarter. Sapient Capital LLC now owns 447,664 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $102,958,000 after purchasing an additional 115,080 shares in the last quarter. Sierra Summit Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Steel Dynamics by 1,894.7% in the 4th quarter. Sierra Summit Advisors LLC now owns 62,334 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $10,562,000 after purchasing an additional 59,209 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Steel Dynamics in the second quarter valued at about $2,844,501,000. 82.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Steel Dynamics Company Profile

Steel Dynamics, Inc is a steel producer and metals recycler headquartered in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Founded in 1993, the company operates electric arc furnaces that use recycled steel and other metallic inputs to manufacture a broad range of steel products. Its customers include companies in the construction, automotive, manufacturing, transportation, energy and appliance industries.

Steel Dynamics’ steel operations produce flat-rolled steel, structural steel, rail, engineered bar products and other specialty steel products.