Gateway Investment Advisers LLC Trims Holdings in Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD)

Gateway Investment Advisers LLC decreased its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) by 6.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 50,368 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 3,640 shares during the quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC’s holdings in Steel Dynamics were worth $6,300,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Forum Financial Management LP lifted its position in Steel Dynamics by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 3,113 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $355,000 after buying an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. OneAscent Financial Services LLC lifted its position in Steel Dynamics by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. OneAscent Financial Services LLC now owns 4,605 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $527,000 after buying an additional 101 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its position in Steel Dynamics by 6.3% in the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 1,734 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $217,000 after buying an additional 102 shares during the last quarter. Cidel Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Steel Dynamics by 6.2% in the fourth quarter. Cidel Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,036 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $232,000 after buying an additional 118 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Axxcess Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Steel Dynamics by 7.0% in the fourth quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,967 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $224,000 after buying an additional 128 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on the stock. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Steel Dynamics from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $135.00 to $145.00 in a research report on Monday, March 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Steel Dynamics from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Steel Dynamics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Steel Dynamics from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $140.00 price target on shares of Steel Dynamics and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Steel Dynamics currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $147.44.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Steel Dynamics news, SVP Miguel Alvarez sold 7,495 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.26, for a total value of $1,013,773.70. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 125,319 shares in the company, valued at $16,950,647.94. This represents a 5.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 6.30% of the company’s stock.

Steel Dynamics Stock Up 1.1%

STLD stock opened at $133.56 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $126.17 and its 200 day moving average price is $127.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 2.53. Steel Dynamics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $103.17 and a fifty-two week high of $155.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.63, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.38.

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

Steel Dynamics Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 11th. Investors of record on Monday, June 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 30th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.50%. Steel Dynamics’s payout ratio is 26.42%.

Steel Dynamics declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback 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 a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.