Insider Selling: Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) Director Sells $168,173.94 in Stock

Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) Director Gabriel Shaheen sold 1,254 shares of the company’s 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 now owns 81,812 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,971,807.32. This represents a 1.51% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Steel Dynamics Stock Performance

STLD opened at $130.03 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.27, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a fifty day moving average of $127.06 and a 200 day moving average of $126.96. Steel Dynamics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $103.17 and a fifty-two week high of $155.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 2.53.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The basic materials company reported $1.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.40 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $4.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.17 billion. Steel Dynamics had a net margin of 8.76% and a return on equity of 17.32%. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.67 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Steel Dynamics, Inc. will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Steel Dynamics declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Monday, February 24th that allows the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the basic materials company to repurchase up to 7.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Steel Dynamics Dividend Announcement

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Steel Dynamics

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Forum Financial Management LP grew its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 3,113 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $355,000 after buying an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Hemington Wealth Management grew its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics by 35.9% in the 1st quarter. Hemington Wealth Management now owns 318 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 84 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 5,803 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $726,000 after buying an additional 91 shares in the last quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. grew its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics by 25.0% in the 1st quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 500 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $63,000 after buying an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, OneAscent Financial Services LLC grew its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. OneAscent Financial Services LLC now owns 4,605 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $527,000 after buying an additional 101 shares in the last quarter. 82.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

STLD has been the subject of several research reports. Wolfe Research raised shares of Steel Dynamics from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Steel Dynamics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. UBS Group raised shares of Steel Dynamics from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $149.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, March 24th. Morgan Stanley set a $140.00 target price on shares of Steel Dynamics and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Steel Dynamics from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $147.44.

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.