Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) Price Target Lowered to $145.00 at Citigroup

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) had its target price trimmed by Citigroup from $160.00 to $145.00 in a research report released on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a buy rating on the basic materials company’s stock.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Steel Dynamics from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Steel Dynamics in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $155.00 target price for the company. Bank of America upgraded shares of Steel Dynamics from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $140.00 to $155.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Steel Dynamics from $138.00 to $131.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $149.00 price target (up from $145.00) on shares of Steel Dynamics in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $144.25.

Steel Dynamics Stock Performance

Shares of STLD traded down $0.39 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $114.90. The stock had a trading volume of 265,608 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,287,165. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 2.39 and a quick ratio of 1.26. The firm has a market cap of $17.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.40 and a beta of 1.31. Steel Dynamics has a 52 week low of $104.60 and a 52 week high of $155.56. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $136.24 and a 200-day moving average price of $127.58.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 16th. The basic materials company reported $2.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.98 by $0.07. Steel Dynamics had a net margin of 9.80% and a return on equity of 19.82%. The company had revenue of $4.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.18 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.47 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Steel Dynamics will post 10.09 EPS for the current year.

Steel Dynamics Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 10th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be issued a $0.46 dividend. This represents a $1.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. Steel Dynamics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.65%.

Insider Activity at Steel Dynamics

In other Steel Dynamics news, SVP Miguel Alvarez sold 6,650 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $143.00, for a total value of $950,950.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 116,949 shares in the company, valued at $16,723,707. This trade represents a 5.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Richard A. Poinsatte sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.75, for a total transaction of $277,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 21,101 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,927,763.75. The trade was a 8.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 28,591 shares of company stock worth $3,885,938. Company insiders own 6.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Steel Dynamics

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Larson Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in Steel Dynamics by 9,465.5% in the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 18,844 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,376,000 after buying an additional 18,647 shares during the period. World Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Steel Dynamics in the 3rd quarter valued at about $15,880,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Steel Dynamics by 9.4% in the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 230,922 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $29,904,000 after purchasing an additional 19,853 shares during the period. IFM Investors Pty Ltd boosted its position in Steel Dynamics by 21.5% during the third quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 38,355 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,836,000 after purchasing an additional 6,779 shares in the last quarter. Finally, iA Global Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Steel Dynamics by 48.0% in the third quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 13,262 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,672,000 after purchasing an additional 4,302 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.41% 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.