Lbp Am Sa Increases Stake in Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD)

Lbp Am Sa boosted its stake in Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) by 173.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 16,438 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 10,416 shares during the period. Lbp Am Sa’s holdings in Steel Dynamics were worth $1,875,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of STLD. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in Steel Dynamics by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,041 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $636,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Steel Dynamics by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 266,499 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $33,600,000 after purchasing an additional 10,758 shares during the period. Metis Global Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics by 18.3% during the third quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 16,314 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,057,000 after buying an additional 2,527 shares during the period. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics by 6.0% during the third quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 4,924 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $621,000 after buying an additional 278 shares during the period. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics by 5.0% during the third quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 23,239 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,930,000 after buying an additional 1,109 shares during the period. 82.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on STLD. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Steel Dynamics from $132.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $149.00 target price (up from $145.00) on shares of Steel Dynamics in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. BNP Paribas raised Steel Dynamics from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. KeyCorp raised Steel Dynamics from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $155.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Steel Dynamics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $125.00 to $145.00 in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $148.56.

Steel Dynamics Trading Up 3.2 %

Steel Dynamics stock opened at $127.14 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.53, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $127.38 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $127.82. Steel Dynamics, Inc. has a 12 month low of $104.60 and a 12 month high of $155.56. The company has a market capitalization of $19.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.34.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The basic materials company reported $1.36 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.69 by ($0.33). Steel Dynamics had a return on equity of 17.32% and a net margin of 8.76%. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.61 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Steel Dynamics, Inc. will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Steel Dynamics Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.57%. This is an increase from Steel Dynamics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.46. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. Steel Dynamics’s payout ratio is 20.41%.

Steel Dynamics declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Monday, February 24th that allows the company to buyback $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the basic materials company to purchase up to 7.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Glenn Pushis sold 23,649 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $16,448,593.80. This represents a 16.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 6.10% of the company’s stock.

Steel Dynamics 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.