Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) Shares Bought by PNC Financial Services Group Inc.

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) by 5.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 21,347 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 1,170 shares during the quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc.’s holdings in Steel Dynamics were worth $2,435,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in STLD. Holocene Advisors LP increased its stake in Steel Dynamics by 85.8% during the third quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 2,295,365 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $289,400,000 after acquiring an additional 1,060,007 shares during the last quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC grew its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics by 116.5% in the third quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 1,018,668 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $128,434,000 after buying an additional 548,086 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics by 22.4% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,384,526 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $158,487,000 after buying an additional 253,802 shares in the last quarter. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc grew its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics by 192.4% in the fourth quarter. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc now owns 250,621 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $28,577,000 after buying an additional 164,895 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Steel Dynamics in the fourth quarter valued at $16,495,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.41% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Glenn Pushis sold 23,649 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.67, for a total value of $3,184,810.83. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 122,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,448,593.80. The trade was a 16.22 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 6.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Steel Dynamics Stock Up 3.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ STLD opened at $127.14 on Friday. 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. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 2.53 and a quick ratio of 1.08. The business has a 50-day moving average of $127.38 and a two-hundred day moving average of $127.77. Steel Dynamics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $104.60 and a 1 year high of $155.56.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The basic materials company reported $1.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 previous year, the company earned $2.61 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Steel Dynamics, Inc. will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Steel Dynamics announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Monday, February 24th that permits the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the basic materials company to repurchase up to 7.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Steel Dynamics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.57%. This is an increase from Steel Dynamics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.46. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. Steel Dynamics’s payout ratio is 20.41%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on STLD. StockNews.com raised Steel Dynamics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Steel Dynamics in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $155.00 price objective for the company. KeyCorp raised 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. BNP Paribas raised Steel Dynamics from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised Steel Dynamics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $125.00 to $145.00 in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $148.56.

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.