Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) Raised to “Strong-Buy” at Wells Fargo & Company

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) was upgraded by equities researchers at Wells Fargo & Company to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on STLD. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Steel Dynamics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Steel Dynamics from $138.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Steel Dynamics from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, June 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $148.70.

Steel Dynamics Stock Down 0.8%

STLD stock opened at $126.42 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $18.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.38. Steel Dynamics has a 52 week low of $103.17 and a 52 week high of $155.56. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $129.62 and its 200 day moving average price is $128.24. The company has a current ratio of 3.13, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 21st. The basic materials company reported $2.01 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.05 by ($0.04). Steel Dynamics had a return on equity of 11.88% and a net margin of 6.07%. The company had revenue of $4.57 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.82 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.72 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Steel Dynamics will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Steel Dynamics

In other news, SVP Miguel Alvarez sold 7,495 shares of Steel Dynamics stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.26, for a total value of $1,013,773.70. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 125,319 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,950,647.94. This trade represents a 5.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Gabriel Shaheen sold 1,254 shares of Steel Dynamics stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.11, for a total transaction of $168,173.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 81,812 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,971,807.32. This trade represents a 1.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 20,749 shares of company stock valued at $2,702,468 in the last quarter. Insiders own 6.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Steel Dynamics by 3.3% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,300,813 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $938,196,000 after purchasing an additional 230,582 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted 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. Capital Research Global Investors boosted 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. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Steel Dynamics by 14.1% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 3,179,062 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $362,636,000 after purchasing an additional 393,516 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Steel Dynamics during the second quarter worth approximately $339,769,000. 82.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.