Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) to Buyback $1.50 billion in Shares

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Monday, February 24th, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $1.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the basic materials company to reacquire up to 7.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Steel Dynamics Price Performance

Shares of Steel Dynamics stock traded up $2.44 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $133.15. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,905,342 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,802,421. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $124.01 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $126.98. Steel Dynamics has a 12-month low of $104.60 and a 12-month high of $155.56. The company has a market cap of $20.27 billion, a PE ratio of 13.59, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 2.53.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 22nd. The basic materials company reported $1.36 EPS 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 company earned $2.61 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Steel Dynamics will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Steel Dynamics Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 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 1.50%. Steel Dynamics’s payout ratio is currently 18.78%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on STLD. StockNews.com raised Steel Dynamics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Citigroup cut their price objective on Steel Dynamics from $160.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. KeyCorp raised Steel Dynamics from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $155.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Steel Dynamics from $131.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Steel Dynamics in a report on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $155.00 price objective for the company. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $146.22.

Insider Buying and Selling

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. 6.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.