Wells Fargo & Company Issues Positive Forecast for Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) Stock Price

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) had its target price lifted by Wells Fargo & Company from $143.00 to $150.00 in a research note released on Monday,Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the basic materials company’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on STLD. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Steel Dynamics from $138.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Steel Dynamics from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, June 20th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Steel Dynamics presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $149.40.

Steel Dynamics Stock Performance

Shares of STLD stock opened at $131.58 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.37 billion, a PE ratio of 19.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.40. Steel Dynamics has a 52-week low of $103.17 and a 52-week high of $155.56. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $129.55 and its 200 day moving average price is $127.97. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 3.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

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

Steel Dynamics Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 10th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 30th. Steel Dynamics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.15%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Steel Dynamics

In other Steel Dynamics news, SVP Christopher A. Graham sold 12,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.71, for a total transaction of $1,520,520.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 66,738 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,456,371.98. This represents a 15.24% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. 6.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in STLD. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Steel Dynamics in the 2nd quarter worth $339,769,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Steel Dynamics by 433.1% in the 1st quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,816,525 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $227,211,000 after buying an additional 1,475,767 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Steel Dynamics by 25.5% in the 1st 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 buying an additional 1,437,897 shares during the period. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its position in shares of Steel Dynamics by 531.0% in the 1st 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 buying an additional 1,002,813 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in shares of Steel Dynamics by 43.3% in the 2nd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,088,372 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $271,238,000 after buying an additional 630,935 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.41% 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.