Empowered Funds LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD)

Empowered Funds LLC increased its position in shares of Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) by 9.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 40,958 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,672 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in Steel Dynamics were worth $4,672,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of STLD. Commerce Bank increased its position in shares of Steel Dynamics by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 5,981 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $754,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp boosted its stake in Steel Dynamics by 0.9% during the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 10,055 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,267,000 after buying an additional 88 shares during the period. Atomi Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Steel Dynamics by 5.0% during the fourth quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,929 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $220,000 after acquiring an additional 91 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd raised its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics by 10.8% in the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 951 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $120,000 after acquiring an additional 93 shares during the period. Finally, Greenleaf Trust boosted its position in shares of Steel Dynamics by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 4,621 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $583,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the period. 82.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on STLD. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Steel Dynamics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. KeyCorp upgraded Steel Dynamics from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $155.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Steel Dynamics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $125.00 to $145.00 in a report on Friday, January 24th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $149.00 price target (up from $145.00) on shares of Steel Dynamics in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Steel Dynamics from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $146.22.

Steel Dynamics Stock Performance

Shares of Steel Dynamics stock opened at $134.86 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $123.68 and a 200-day simple moving average of $126.36. The company has a market cap of $20.53 billion, a PE ratio of 13.76 and a beta of 1.35. Steel Dynamics, Inc. has a one year low of $104.60 and a one year high of $155.56. 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 (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 return on equity of 17.32% and a net margin of 8.76%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.61 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Steel Dynamics, Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Steel Dynamics

In related news, SVP Richard A. Poinsatte sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.75, for a total value of $277,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 21,101 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,927,763.75. This represents a 8.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 6.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Steel Dynamics Company Profile

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.