Merit Financial Group LLC Has $1.45 Million Holdings in Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD)

Merit Financial Group LLC raised its position in Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) by 35.0% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 12,243 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,177 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Steel Dynamics were worth $1,446,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Steel Dynamics by 0.3% in the third 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 lifted its position in Steel Dynamics by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,612,430 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $280,105,000 after buying an additional 19,833 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics by 6.4% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,024,978 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $217,118,000 after buying an additional 122,507 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its position in shares of Steel Dynamics by 165.4% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 2,014,956 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $212,447,000 after acquiring an additional 1,255,751 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in Steel Dynamics by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,008,853 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $118,787,000 after acquiring an additional 11,026 shares in the last quarter. 82.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

STLD has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Steel Dynamics from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Steel Dynamics from $100.00 to $118.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Steel Dynamics from $130.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Steel Dynamics from $120.00 to $119.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $121.17.

Steel Dynamics Price Performance

NASDAQ:STLD opened at $135.47 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.55, a current ratio of 2.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $138.22 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $123.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.30 and a beta of 1.47. Steel Dynamics, Inc. has a 12-month low of $90.55 and a 12-month high of $151.34.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The basic materials company reported $3.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.54 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $4.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.74 billion. Steel Dynamics had a return on equity of 27.62% and a net margin of 12.89%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $4.01 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Steel Dynamics, Inc. will post 12.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Steel Dynamics Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, April 14th. Stockholders of record on Sunday, March 31st were paid a dividend of $0.46 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $1.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.36%. This is a positive change from Steel Dynamics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. Steel Dynamics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 12.64%.

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.