Lord Abbett & CO. LLC Buys 548,086 Shares of Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD)

Lord Abbett & CO. LLC grew its position in shares of Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) by 116.5% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,018,668 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 548,086 shares during the quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC’s holdings in Steel Dynamics were worth $128,434,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new stake in shares of Steel Dynamics during the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Steel Dynamics during the second quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Private Trust Co. NA raised its position in Steel Dynamics by 532.6% in the third quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 291 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 245 shares during the period. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics by 33.3% during the 2nd quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 400 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $52,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, HHM Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Steel Dynamics during the 2nd quarter valued at $52,000. 82.41% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Steel Dynamics news, VP Chad Bickford sold 2,000 shares of Steel Dynamics stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.86, for a total value of $269,720.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 17,100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,306,106. The trade was a 10.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Glenn Pushis sold 17,941 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $133.09, for a total value of $2,387,767.69. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 146,693 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,523,371.37. This represents a 10.90 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 28,591 shares of company stock worth $3,885,938. 6.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

STLD has been the topic of several recent research reports. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $149.00 price objective (up previously from $145.00) on shares of Steel Dynamics in a research note on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Steel Dynamics from $129.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Steel Dynamics in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $155.00 price target for the company. Bank of America upgraded shares of Steel Dynamics from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $140.00 to $155.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Steel Dynamics from $138.00 to $131.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $146.13.

Steel Dynamics Stock Performance

NASDAQ STLD opened at $122.37 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $137.11 and its 200-day moving average price is $128.01. Steel Dynamics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $104.60 and a fifty-two week high of $155.56. The company has a market cap of $18.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.07 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 2.39.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 16th. The basic materials company reported $2.05 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.98 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $4.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.18 billion. Steel Dynamics had a net margin of 9.80% and a return on equity of 19.82%. Steel Dynamics’s quarterly revenue was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.47 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Steel Dynamics, Inc. will post 10.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Steel Dynamics Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 10th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of $0.46 per share. This represents a $1.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.50%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. Steel Dynamics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.65%.

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.