Steel Dynamics, Inc. (STLD) To Go Ex-Dividend on March 31st

Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, February 24th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of 0.50 per share by the basic materials company on Friday, April 11th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This is a 8.7% increase from Steel Dynamics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.46.

Steel Dynamics has increased its dividend by an average of 21.0% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 13 years. Steel Dynamics has a dividend payout ratio of 16.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Steel Dynamics to earn $12.10 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 16.5%.

Steel Dynamics Stock Performance

Steel Dynamics stock opened at $123.97 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $18.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.34. Steel Dynamics has a 12 month low of $104.60 and a 12 month high of $155.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 2.53 and a quick ratio of 1.08. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $128.46 and its 200-day moving average is $128.52.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.61 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Steel Dynamics will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on STLD. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Steel Dynamics from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $145.00 to $158.00 in a report on Friday, March 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Steel Dynamics from $132.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Steel Dynamics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $125.00 to $145.00 in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Wolfe Research upgraded Steel Dynamics from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Steel Dynamics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $148.56.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Glenn Pushis sold 23,649 shares of the 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 in the company, valued at approximately $16,448,593.80. This represents a 16.22 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 6.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Steel Dynamics announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Monday, February 24th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the basic materials company to purchase up to 7.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.