National Pension Service Trims Stock Position in Steel Dynamics, Inc. $STLD

National Pension Service cut its stake in Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) by 10.1% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 279,644 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 31,491 shares during the period. National Pension Service’s holdings in Steel Dynamics were worth $64,167,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in STLD. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics by 26,381.3% in the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 42,793,831 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $9,819,472,000 after purchasing an additional 42,632,231 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in Steel Dynamics in the second quarter valued at approximately $2,844,501,000. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in Steel Dynamics by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 3,623,054 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $613,926,000 after buying an additional 9,959 shares in the last quarter. Life Cycle Investment Partners Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Steel Dynamics in the fourth quarter worth $586,702,000. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Steel Dynamics during the 4th quarter worth $564,590,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

STLD has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Steel Dynamics from $270.00 to $272.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Steel Dynamics in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Weiss Ratings upgraded Steel Dynamics from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Steel Dynamics from $275.00 to $255.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 24th. Finally, Bank of America cut their target price on Steel Dynamics from $280.00 to $260.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Steel Dynamics presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $258.45.

Steel Dynamics Stock Performance

Shares of STLD stock opened at $239.79 on Friday. Steel Dynamics, Inc. has a 12-month low of $129.41 and a 12-month high of $288.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $34.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.45 and a beta of 1.50. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $242.94 and a 200 day simple moving average of $226.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 3.18 and a quick ratio of 1.45.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 21st. The basic materials company reported $3.69 earnings per share 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 the consensus estimate of $5.56 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.01 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 33.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Steel Dynamics, Inc. will post 17.16 EPS for the current year.

Steel Dynamics Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 9th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.53 per share. This represents a $2.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 30th. Steel Dynamics’s payout ratio is currently 19.22%.

Steel Dynamics Profile

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.