Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. Reduces Stock Position in Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD)

Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. trimmed its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) by 2.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,563 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 104 shares during the period. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Steel Dynamics were worth $406,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in STLD. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Steel Dynamics by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,688,494 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $419,697,000 after buying an additional 30,350 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Steel Dynamics during the fourth quarter valued at $336,426,000. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in Steel Dynamics by 22.4% in 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. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,374,907 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $156,836,000 after purchasing an additional 11,672 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of Steel Dynamics by 12.5% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,027,341 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $117,189,000 after purchasing an additional 114,485 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.41% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Steel Dynamics

In other Steel Dynamics news, SVP Glenn Pushis sold 23,649 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.67, for a total transaction of $3,184,810.83. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 122,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,448,593.80. The trade was a 16.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 6.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on STLD shares. KeyCorp raised shares of Steel Dynamics from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $155.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Steel Dynamics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $125.00 to $145.00 in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Wolfe Research upgraded Steel Dynamics from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. UBS Group upgraded Steel Dynamics from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $149.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Steel Dynamics from $132.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $149.67.

Steel Dynamics Stock Performance

STLD opened at $109.21 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 2.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.14, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a fifty day moving average of $128.13 and a 200 day moving average of $128.87. Steel Dynamics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $104.60 and a fifty-two week high of $155.56.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The basic materials company reported $1.36 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.69 by ($0.33). Steel Dynamics had a net margin of 8.76% and a return on equity of 17.32%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.61 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Steel Dynamics, Inc. will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Steel Dynamics declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Monday, February 24th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the basic materials company to reacquire up to 7.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Steel Dynamics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.83%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. This is a boost from Steel Dynamics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.46. Steel Dynamics’s payout ratio is currently 20.41%.

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.