Bay Capital Advisors LLC Purchases Shares of 3,002 Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD)

Bay Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor acquired 3,002 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $342,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of STLD. Holocene Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Steel Dynamics by 85.8% during the 3rd quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 2,295,365 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $289,400,000 after buying an additional 1,060,007 shares during the period. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC raised its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics by 116.5% during the third quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 1,018,668 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $128,434,000 after purchasing an additional 548,086 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in shares of Steel Dynamics by 22.4% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,384,526 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $158,487,000 after purchasing an additional 253,802 shares in the last quarter. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc boosted its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics by 192.4% in the fourth quarter. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc now owns 250,621 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $28,577,000 after purchasing an additional 164,895 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Steel Dynamics in the fourth quarter valued at $16,495,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on STLD shares. Wolfe Research upgraded Steel Dynamics from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. StockNews.com upgraded Steel Dynamics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Citigroup cut their target price on Steel Dynamics from $160.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Steel Dynamics from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Steel Dynamics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $125.00 to $145.00 in a report on Friday, January 24th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $148.56.

Steel Dynamics Stock Up 3.3 %

Shares of Steel Dynamics stock opened at $126.66 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 2.53 and a quick ratio of 1.08. Steel Dynamics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $104.60 and a 1-year high of $155.56. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $128.29 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $128.31. The company has a market capitalization of $18.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.92, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.34.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 22nd. The basic materials company reported $1.36 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.61 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Steel Dynamics, Inc. will post 9.01 EPS for the current year.

Steel Dynamics Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a $0.50 dividend. This is a positive change 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 1.58%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. Steel Dynamics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.41%.

Steel Dynamics declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback plan on Monday, February 24th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the basic materials company to reacquire up to 7.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Glenn Pushis sold 23,649 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.67, for a total value of $3,184,810.83. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 122,140 shares in the company, valued at $16,448,593.80. This represents a 16.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 6.00% of the company’s stock.

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.