Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) Updates Q1 Earnings Guidance

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) updated its first quarter earnings guidance on Monday. The company provided earnings per share guidance of $1.36-1.40 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of $1.47.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on STLD. Wolfe Research raised shares of Steel Dynamics from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Steel Dynamics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $125.00 to $145.00 in a report on Friday, January 24th. 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. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Steel Dynamics from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $145.00 to $158.00 in a report on Friday, March 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Steel Dynamics from $132.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $148.56.

Steel Dynamics Price Performance

STLD stock traded down $2.20 during trading on Monday, hitting $124.94. The company had a trading volume of 1,983,524 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,362,166. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.75, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.34. The business has a 50 day moving average of $127.38 and a 200 day moving average of $127.89. Steel Dynamics has a fifty-two week low of $104.60 and a fifty-two week high of $155.56. 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 (NASDAQ:STLD) last issued its quarterly 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 quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.61 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Steel Dynamics will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Steel Dynamics Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This is an increase from Steel Dynamics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.46. Steel Dynamics’s payout ratio is presently 20.41%.

Steel Dynamics announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Monday, February 24th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the basic materials company to buy up to 7.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Steel Dynamics news, SVP Glenn Pushis sold 23,649 shares of Steel Dynamics stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 122,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,448,593.80. The trade was a 16.22 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 6.00% of the company’s stock.

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.