Steel Dynamics, Inc. Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.46 (NASDAQ:STLD)

Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, August 16th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be given a dividend of 0.46 per share by the basic materials company on Friday, October 11th. This represents a $1.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.58%.

Steel Dynamics has raised its dividend by an average of 19.4% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 12 consecutive years. Steel Dynamics has a dividend payout ratio of 18.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Steel Dynamics to earn $10.25 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 18.0%.

Steel Dynamics Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ STLD traded down $1.35 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $116.70. 1,114,733 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,239,415. The company has a current ratio of 2.35, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The company has a market capitalization of $18.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.03 and a beta of 1.35. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $125.23 and a 200-day moving average price of $130.61. Steel Dynamics has a 52-week low of $95.53 and a 52-week high of $151.34.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 17th. The basic materials company reported $2.72 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.67 by $0.05. Steel Dynamics had a return on equity of 22.89% and a net margin of 11.10%. The company had revenue of $4.63 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.43 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $4.81 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 8.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Steel Dynamics will post 11.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have commented on STLD shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Steel Dynamics from $118.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Bank of America reduced their target price on Steel Dynamics from $150.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Steel Dynamics in a report on Monday, May 20th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $150.00 price objective for the company. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on Steel Dynamics from $140.00 to $135.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Steel Dynamics from $134.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $138.14.

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.