Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) Shares Sold by California Public Employees Retirement System

California Public Employees Retirement System cut its stake in Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) by 7.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 308,121 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 24,557 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Steel Dynamics were worth $36,389,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in STLD. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics by 165.4% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 2,014,956 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $212,447,000 after purchasing an additional 1,255,751 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. grew its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics by 105.7% in the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 789,836 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $84,686,000 after purchasing an additional 405,836 shares in the last quarter. Sapient Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Steel Dynamics in the fourth quarter worth $38,644,000. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics by 29.0% in the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 997,827 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $106,139,000 after purchasing an additional 224,226 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ING Groep NV grew its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics by 832.8% in the third 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 in the last quarter. 82.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on STLD. UBS Group decreased their price target 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. increased their price target on Steel Dynamics from $100.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Steel Dynamics from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on Steel Dynamics from $130.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $121.17.

Steel Dynamics Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of STLD stock opened at $134.04 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $137.39 and a 200 day simple moving average of $122.28. Steel Dynamics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $90.55 and a fifty-two week high of $151.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.21 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a quick ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 2.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The basic materials company reported $3.67 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.54 by $0.13. Steel Dynamics had a return on equity of 27.62% and a net margin of 12.89%. The business had revenue of $4.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.74 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $4.01 earnings per share. Steel Dynamics’s revenue was down 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Steel Dynamics, Inc. will post 11.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Steel Dynamics Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, April 14th. Stockholders of record on Sunday, March 31st were issued a dividend of $0.46 per share. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.37%. This is an increase from Steel Dynamics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. Steel Dynamics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 12.64%.

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.