Miguel Alvarez Sells 7,495 Shares of Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) Stock

Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) SVP Miguel Alvarez sold 7,495 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.26, for a total transaction of $1,013,773.70. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 125,319 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,950,647.94. This represents a 5.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Steel Dynamics Stock Down 2.3%

Shares of NASDAQ STLD opened at $132.21 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.49, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $125.31 and a 200-day moving average price of $128.28. Steel Dynamics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $103.17 and a 1 year high of $155.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 2.53 and a quick ratio of 1.08.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $4.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.17 billion. Steel Dynamics had a net margin of 8.76% and a return on equity of 17.32%. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.67 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Steel Dynamics, Inc. will post 9.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Steel Dynamics declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Monday, February 24th that permits the company to buyback $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the basic materials company to purchase up to 7.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board 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. Investors of record on Monday, June 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.51%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 30th. Steel Dynamics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.42%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

STLD has been the topic of several research analyst reports. UBS Group raised shares of Steel Dynamics from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $149.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Steel Dynamics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $125.00 to $145.00 in a research report on Friday, January 24th. KeyCorp upgraded Steel Dynamics from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $155.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. StockNews.com lowered Steel Dynamics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upgraded Steel Dynamics from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $135.00 to $145.00 in a report on Monday, March 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $147.44.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in STLD. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Steel Dynamics during the fourth quarter worth about $336,426,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Steel Dynamics by 433.1% during the first quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,816,525 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $227,211,000 after purchasing an additional 1,475,767 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Steel Dynamics by 25.5% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 7,066,300 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $883,854,000 after purchasing an additional 1,437,897 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its holdings in Steel Dynamics by 531.0% during the first quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,191,669 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $149,054,000 after purchasing an additional 1,002,813 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in Steel Dynamics by 29.4% in 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 acquiring an additional 815,629 shares during the period. 82.41% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.