Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC Has $1.43 Million Position in Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD)

Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) by 2.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 12,547 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 276 shares during the quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC’s holdings in Steel Dynamics were worth $1,431,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in STLD. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Steel Dynamics in the third quarter valued at approximately $62,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its stake in Steel Dynamics by 3.1% in the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 20,177 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,544,000 after acquiring an additional 604 shares during the last quarter. Commerce Bank lifted its stake in Steel Dynamics by 1.2% in the third quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 5,981 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $754,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Steel Dynamics by 4.8% in the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 14,549 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,834,000 after acquiring an additional 661 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI acquired a new stake in Steel Dynamics in the third quarter valued at approximately $200,000. Institutional investors own 82.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have issued reports on STLD shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Steel Dynamics from $132.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Steel Dynamics from $160.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Steel Dynamics from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $145.00 to $158.00 in a research note on Friday, March 7th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Steel Dynamics from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, KeyCorp upgraded shares of Steel Dynamics from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $155.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $148.56.

Steel Dynamics Price Performance

Shares of Steel Dynamics stock opened at $122.67 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.52, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.34. Steel Dynamics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $104.60 and a 1-year high of $155.56. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $128.22 and a 200-day simple moving average of $128.10. 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 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 net margin of 8.76% and a return on equity of 17.32%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.61 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Steel Dynamics, Inc. will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Steel Dynamics Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This is a boost from Steel Dynamics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.46. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. Steel Dynamics’s dividend payout ratio is presently 20.41%.

Steel Dynamics declared that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Monday, February 24th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.50 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the basic materials company to purchase up to 7.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Steel Dynamics

In related news, SVP Glenn Pushis sold 23,649 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.67, for a total transaction of $3,184,810.83. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 122,140 shares in the company, valued at $16,448,593.80. This represents a 16.22 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 6.00% of the company’s stock.

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.