Oakworth Capital Inc. Makes New $354,000 Investment in Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD)

Oakworth Capital Inc. purchased a new position in Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 3,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $354,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. increased its position in shares of Steel Dynamics by 3.0% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 17,595,650 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,989,364,000 after purchasing an additional 510,981 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Steel Dynamics by 9.5% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,207,455 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $771,198,000 after buying an additional 800,656 shares during the period. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Steel Dynamics by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 3,745,326 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $401,574,000 after purchasing an additional 12,208 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in shares of Steel Dynamics by 29.2% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,034,652 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $296,486,000 after acquiring an additional 684,975 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of Steel Dynamics by 15.5% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,308,698 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $225,560,000 after buying an additional 309,009 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on STLD. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Steel Dynamics from $130.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Steel Dynamics from $120.00 to $119.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Steel Dynamics from $100.00 to $118.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Steel Dynamics from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Steel Dynamics presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $120.29.

Steel Dynamics Stock Performance

STLD opened at $138.93 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $21.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.52 and a beta of 1.42. Steel Dynamics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $90.55 and a 1-year high of $151.34. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $135.75 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $121.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 2.91 and a quick ratio of 1.67.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The basic materials company reported $2.61 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.63 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $4.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.22 billion. Steel Dynamics had a return on equity of 29.49% and a net margin of 13.04%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $4.37 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Steel Dynamics, Inc. will post 11.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Steel Dynamics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, April 14th. Investors of record on Sunday, March 31st were given a dividend of $0.46 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.32%. This is a boost from Steel Dynamics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. Steel Dynamics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 12.61%.

Steel Dynamics 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.