Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note released on Saturday morning,Wall Street Zen reports.

STLD has been the topic of a number of other research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Steel Dynamics in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $300.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Steel Dynamics from $270.00 to $272.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Steel Dynamics from $165.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 10th. KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Steel Dynamics in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Finally, Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of Steel Dynamics from $280.00 to $260.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $258.45.

Steel Dynamics Stock Down 2.2%

NASDAQ:STLD opened at $234.53 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $243.09 and a 200 day simple moving average of $227.23. Steel Dynamics has a 52-week low of $129.41 and a 52-week high of $288.74. The company has a market cap of $33.62 billion, a PE ratio of 21.26, a PEG ratio of 0.44 and a beta of 1.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a current ratio of 3.18.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 21st. The basic materials company reported $3.69 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.63 by $0.06. Steel Dynamics had a return on equity of 18.12% and a net margin of 7.83%.The firm had revenue of $6.09 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.56 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.01 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 33.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Steel Dynamics will post 17.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Steel Dynamics Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 9th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 30th will be issued a $0.53 dividend. This represents a $2.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 30th. Steel Dynamics’s dividend payout ratio is presently 19.22%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Steel Dynamics

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its position in Steel Dynamics by 15.6% during the second quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 27,467 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $6,303,000 after purchasing an additional 3,709 shares during the period. WINTON GROUP Ltd bought a new position in shares of Steel Dynamics in the second quarter valued at about $2,180,000. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC lifted its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics by 3.9% during the 2nd quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 2,912 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $668,000 after buying an additional 110 shares during the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics by 4.1% during the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 14,708 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,375,000 after buying an additional 574 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Baird Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Steel Dynamics by 9.9% during the 2nd quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 187,906 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $43,117,000 after buying an additional 16,930 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.41% of the company’s stock.

About Steel Dynamics

Steel Dynamics, Inc is a steel producer and metals recycler headquartered in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Founded in 1993, the company operates electric arc furnaces that use recycled steel and other metallic inputs to manufacture a broad range of steel products. Its customers include companies in the construction, automotive, manufacturing, transportation, energy and appliance industries.

Steel Dynamics’ steel operations produce flat-rolled steel, structural steel, rail, engineered bar products and other specialty steel products.