Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) Releases Q4 Earnings Guidance

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) issued an update on its fourth quarter earnings guidance on Monday morning. The company provided EPS guidance of $1.26-1.30 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of $1.63.

Steel Dynamics Trading Down 3.6 %

NASDAQ STLD opened at $122.37 on Monday. Steel Dynamics has a 52 week low of $104.60 and a 52 week high of $155.56. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $137.11 and a two-hundred day moving average of $127.94. The company has a quick ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 2.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.63 billion, a PE ratio of 11.07 and a beta of 1.31.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 16th. The basic materials company reported $2.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.98 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $4.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.18 billion. Steel Dynamics had a return on equity of 19.82% and a net margin of 9.80%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.47 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Steel Dynamics will post 10.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Steel Dynamics Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Steel Dynamics in a report on Monday, December 2nd. They set a “neutral” rating and a $155.00 price target on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Steel Dynamics from $129.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $149.00 price target (up previously from $145.00) on shares of Steel Dynamics in a research note on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Steel Dynamics from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Steel Dynamics from $138.00 to $131.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $146.13.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Steel Dynamics news, VP Chad Bickford sold 2,000 shares of the business’s 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 owns 17,100 shares in the company, valued at $2,306,106. The trade was a 10.47 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Glenn Pushis sold 17,941 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 $19,523,371.37. This represents a 10.90 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 28,591 shares of company stock worth $3,885,938 over the last ninety days. 6.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.