Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.50

Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, February 24th, RTT News reports. Stockholders 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 1.53%. This is a positive change 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 raised its dividend annually for the last 12 consecutive years. Steel Dynamics has a payout ratio of 15.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Steel Dynamics to earn $12.10 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.84 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 15.2%.

Steel Dynamics Trading Down 3.2 %

Shares of STLD stock opened at $130.71 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 2.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $123.78 and a 200 day simple moving average of $126.89. Steel Dynamics has a fifty-two week low of $104.60 and a fifty-two week high of $155.56. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.35.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) last announced its 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 period in the previous year, the company earned $2.61 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Steel Dynamics will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Glenn Pushis sold 23,649 shares of Steel Dynamics stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.67, for a total value of $3,184,810.83. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 122,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,448,593.80. This trade represents a 16.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 6.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on STLD shares. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Steel Dynamics from $131.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Steel Dynamics from $134.00 to $132.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 17th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $149.00 price target (up from $145.00) on shares of Steel Dynamics in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. BNP Paribas upgraded Steel Dynamics from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Citigroup dropped their target price on Steel Dynamics from $160.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $146.22.

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.