Wedge Capital Management L L P NC Purchases 7,272 Shares of Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD)

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC increased its holdings in Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) by 13.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 61,236 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,272 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC’s holdings in Steel Dynamics were worth $7,232,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Steel Dynamics by 165.4% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 2,014,956 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $212,447,000 after buying an additional 1,255,751 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. grew its holdings in Steel Dynamics by 105.7% during the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 789,836 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $84,686,000 after acquiring an additional 405,836 shares in the last quarter. Sapient Capital LLC purchased a new position in Steel Dynamics during the 4th quarter valued at about $38,644,000. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in Steel Dynamics by 29.0% during the 3rd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 997,827 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $106,139,000 after purchasing an additional 224,226 shares during the period. Finally, ING Groep NV lifted its position in shares of Steel Dynamics by 832.8% in the 3rd quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 213,975 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $22,942,000 after purchasing an additional 191,036 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on STLD. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Steel Dynamics from $120.00 to $119.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted 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, April 16th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Steel Dynamics from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on Steel Dynamics from $130.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Steel Dynamics presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $121.17.

Steel Dynamics Stock Down 2.3 %

STLD stock opened at $134.16 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $21.19 billion, a PE ratio of 9.20 and a beta of 1.42. Steel Dynamics, Inc. has a one year low of $90.55 and a one year high of $151.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a current ratio of 2.91. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $136.80 and its 200-day moving average price is $121.97.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 23rd. The basic materials company reported $2.61 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.63 by ($0.02). Steel Dynamics had a return on equity of 29.49% and a net margin of 13.04%. The company had revenue of $4.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.22 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $4.37 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Steel Dynamics, Inc. will post 11.79 EPS for the current year.

Steel Dynamics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, April 14th. Shareholders of record on Sunday, March 31st were issued a dividend of $0.46 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. This is a positive change from Steel Dynamics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $1.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.37%. Steel Dynamics’s dividend payout ratio is 12.61%.

Steel Dynamics Company 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.