Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) Shares Sold by Bank of Montreal Can

Bank of Montreal Can reduced its stake in Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD - Free Report) by 29.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 324,202 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 136,891 shares during the quarter. Bank of Montreal Can owned about 0.21% of Steel Dynamics worth $36,982,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Harbour Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Steel Dynamics by 133.7% in the fourth quarter. Harbour Capital Advisors LLC now owns 11,499 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,301,000 after purchasing an additional 6,579 shares during the period. Oak Thistle LLC acquired a new position in shares of Steel Dynamics during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,725,000. Foster & Motley Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Steel Dynamics by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Foster & Motley Inc. now owns 35,299 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $4,027,000 after acquiring an additional 2,602 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in shares of Steel Dynamics by 22.4% in 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 acquiring an additional 253,802 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management increased its position in Steel Dynamics by 9.1% during the fourth quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 27,373 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $3,123,000 after purchasing an additional 2,287 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.41% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Steel Dynamics news, SVP Glenn Pushis sold 23,649 shares of Steel Dynamics stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 122,140 shares in the company, 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 at this link. 6.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

STLD has been the subject of a number of research reports. StockNews.com raised Steel Dynamics from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. BNP Paribas upgraded Steel Dynamics from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Steel Dynamics from $140.00 to $135.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Steel Dynamics from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $135.00 to $145.00 in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Steel Dynamics from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and raised their target price for the company from $145.00 to $158.00 in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $149.11.

Steel Dynamics Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of Steel Dynamics stock traded up $0.77 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $119.01. The company had a trading volume of 286,883 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,898,368. 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, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $103.17 and a fifty-two week high of $155.56. The firm's fifty day moving average is $126.17 and its 200-day moving average is $128.60. The company has a market cap of $17.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.35.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 22nd. The basic materials company reported $1.36 earnings per share (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 last year, the firm posted $2.61 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Steel Dynamics, Inc. will post 9.01 EPS for the current year.

Steel Dynamics announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program 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 programs are generally an indication that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

Steel Dynamics Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 11th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 31st. This is a boost from Steel Dynamics's previous quarterly dividend of $0.46. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.68%. Steel Dynamics's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.41%.

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.