Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) Releases Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.04 EPS

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday. The basic materials company reported $1.44 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.40 by $0.04, Zacks reports. The business had revenue of $4.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.17 billion. Steel Dynamics had a return on equity of 17.32% and a net margin of 8.76%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.67 EPS.

Steel Dynamics Stock Performance

STLD opened at $117.39 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $124.67 and its 200 day moving average is $128.23. The company has a current ratio of 2.53, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The company has a market cap of $17.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.98, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.35. Steel Dynamics has a 12-month low of $103.17 and a 12-month high of $155.56.

Steel Dynamics Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This is an increase from Steel Dynamics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.46. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 31st. Steel Dynamics’s payout ratio is currently 20.41%.

Steel Dynamics declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Monday, February 24th that allows the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the basic materials company to buy up to 7.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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 dated 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 122,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,448,593.80. The trade was a 16.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 6.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on STLD. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Steel Dynamics from $140.00 to $135.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Steel Dynamics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $125.00 to $145.00 in a research note on Friday, January 24th. StockNews.com raised shares of Steel Dynamics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. KeyCorp raised Steel Dynamics from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $155.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised Steel Dynamics from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $149.11.

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.