Empirical Finance LLC Increases Holdings in Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD)

Empirical Finance LLC increased its position in Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) by 2.6% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 6,707 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 167 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Steel Dynamics were worth $846,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of STLD. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of Steel Dynamics by 4.4% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,604,492 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $534,295,000 after buying an additional 152,254 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Steel Dynamics by 7.0% in the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,138,157 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $276,891,000 after acquiring an additional 140,042 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its stake in Steel Dynamics by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,768,333 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $228,999,000 after purchasing an additional 22,390 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management increased its holdings in shares of Steel Dynamics by 3.9% in the 2nd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 1,410,070 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $182,604,000 after purchasing an additional 53,532 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AustralianSuper Pty Ltd raised its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics by 1.8% in the second quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd now owns 592,255 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $76,697,000 after purchasing an additional 10,701 shares during the last quarter. 82.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, VP Chad Bickford sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 17,100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,306,106. This represents a 10.47 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Glenn Pushis sold 17,941 shares of Steel Dynamics stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $133.09, for a total transaction of $2,387,767.69. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 146,693 shares in the company, valued at $19,523,371.37. This represents a 10.90 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 26,591 shares of company stock valued at $3,608,438 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 6.00% of the company’s stock.

Steel Dynamics Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of STLD stock opened at $139.41 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.39, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Steel Dynamics, Inc. has a 12 month low of $104.60 and a 12 month high of $155.56. The stock has a market cap of $21.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.62 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $128.98 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $127.09.

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. Steel Dynamics had a return on equity of 19.82% and a net margin of 9.80%. The firm had revenue of $4.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.18 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.47 EPS. Steel Dynamics’s revenue was down 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Steel Dynamics, Inc. will post 10.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Steel Dynamics Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 10th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a $0.46 dividend. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.32%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. Steel Dynamics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 16.65%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

STLD has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group raised Steel Dynamics from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $129.00 to $145.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Steel Dynamics from $129.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. BMO Capital Markets increased 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. Bank of America raised shares of Steel Dynamics from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $140.00 to $155.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Steel Dynamics from $138.00 to $131.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $144.29.

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.