Short Interest in Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) Rises By 23.7%

Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in May. As of May 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,180,000 shares, a growth of 23.7% from the May 15th total of 2,570,000 shares. Currently, 2.3% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,700,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.9 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at Steel Dynamics

In related news, Director Gabriel Shaheen sold 1,254 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.11, for a total transaction of $168,173.94. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 81,812 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,971,807.32. The trade was a 1.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Miguel Alvarez sold 7,495 shares of Steel Dynamics stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.26, for a total transaction of $1,013,773.70. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 125,319 shares in the company, valued at $16,950,647.94. This trade represents a 5.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 6.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Steel Dynamics

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in STLD. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Steel Dynamics in the fourth quarter worth $336,426,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Steel Dynamics by 433.1% during the first quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,816,525 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $227,211,000 after purchasing an additional 1,475,767 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Steel Dynamics by 25.5% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 7,066,300 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $883,854,000 after purchasing an additional 1,437,897 shares during the period. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its holdings in shares of Steel Dynamics by 531.0% during the first quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,191,669 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $149,054,000 after purchasing an additional 1,002,813 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in shares of Steel Dynamics by 29.4% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 3,592,670 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $409,816,000 after purchasing an additional 815,629 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

STLD has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Steel Dynamics from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $135.00 to $145.00 in a research note on Monday, March 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Steel Dynamics from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Steel Dynamics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Morgan Stanley set a $140.00 price target on shares of Steel Dynamics and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Steel Dynamics from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $147.44.

Steel Dynamics Trading Down 2.3%

Shares of STLD stock opened at $130.11 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $19.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a quick ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 2.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44. Steel Dynamics has a fifty-two week low of $103.17 and a fifty-two week high of $155.56. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $128.74 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $126.54.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The basic materials company reported $1.44 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.40 by $0.04. Steel Dynamics had a net margin of 6.80% and a return on equity of 13.26%. The business had revenue of $4.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.17 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.67 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Steel Dynamics will post 9.01 EPS for the current year.

Steel Dynamics Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 11th. Investors of record on Monday, June 30th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 30th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.54%. Steel Dynamics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.42%.

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

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.