Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) Price Target Lowered to $132.00 at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) had its price objective lowered by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $134.00 to $132.00 in a report issued on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a neutral rating on the basic materials company’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also recently commented on STLD. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Steel Dynamics from $160.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. BNP Paribas upgraded Steel Dynamics from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $149.00 target price (up previously from $145.00) on shares of Steel Dynamics in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Bank of America raised Steel Dynamics from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $140.00 to $155.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Steel Dynamics from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Steel Dynamics has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $140.88.

Steel Dynamics Price Performance

Shares of STLD opened at $125.83 on Friday. Steel Dynamics has a 12 month low of $104.60 and a 12 month high of $155.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 2.39 and a quick ratio of 1.26. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $129.13 and a 200 day moving average price of $126.46. The company has a market cap of $19.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.39 and a beta of 1.36.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The basic materials company reported $2.05 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.98 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $4.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.18 billion. Steel Dynamics had a net margin of 9.80% and a return on equity of 19.82%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.47 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Steel Dynamics will post 9.78 earnings per share for the current year.

Steel Dynamics Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 10th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st were paid a dividend of $0.46 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.46%. Steel Dynamics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.65%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, VP Chad Bickford sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.86, for a total transaction of $269,720.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 17,100 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,306,106. This trade represents a 10.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Glenn Pushis sold 17,941 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $133.09, for a total value of $2,387,767.69. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 146,693 shares in the company, valued at $19,523,371.37. This represents a 10.90 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 28,591 shares of company stock worth $3,885,938. 6.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Steel Dynamics

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of STLD. Holocene Advisors LP raised its holdings in Steel Dynamics by 85.8% during the 3rd quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 2,295,365 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $289,400,000 after buying an additional 1,060,007 shares during the period. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC increased its position in shares of Steel Dynamics by 116.5% in the third quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 1,018,668 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $128,434,000 after acquiring an additional 548,086 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in shares of Steel Dynamics by 22.4% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,384,526 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $158,487,000 after acquiring an additional 253,802 shares during the period. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ lifted its position in shares of Steel Dynamics by 65.3% in the 2nd quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ now owns 571,787 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $74,064,000 after acquiring an additional 225,832 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new position in Steel Dynamics during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $24,670,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.41% of the company’s stock.

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.