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

Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, February 24th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of 0.50 per share by the basic materials company on Friday, April 11th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.50%. This is a boost from Steel Dynamics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.46.

Steel Dynamics has increased its dividend payment by an average of 21.0% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 12 years. Steel Dynamics has a dividend payout ratio of 15.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities 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 Up 1.9 %

Shares of STLD stock opened at $133.15 on Tuesday. Steel Dynamics has a 12-month low of $104.60 and a 12-month high of $155.56. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $124.01 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $126.98. 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 company has a market capitalization of $20.27 billion, a PE ratio of 13.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.35.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) last released 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 last year, the company earned $2.61 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Steel Dynamics will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on STLD. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Steel Dynamics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $125.00 to $145.00 in a research report on Friday, January 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Steel Dynamics in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $155.00 price target on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded Steel Dynamics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Steel Dynamics from $160.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, KeyCorp raised Steel Dynamics from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $155.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Steel Dynamics has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $146.22.

Insider Activity at Steel Dynamics

In other news, SVP Glenn Pushis sold 23,649 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.67, for a total transaction of $3,184,810.83. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 6.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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