Investors Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD)

Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Tuesday. Stock investors acquired 7,973 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 203% compared to the typical daily volume of 2,632 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on STLD. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on shares of Steel Dynamics from $145.00 to $125.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Steel Dynamics from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Steel Dynamics from $129.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Steel Dynamics from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $140.00 to $155.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $149.00 price target (up from $145.00) on shares of Steel Dynamics in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $141.13.

Insider Activity at Steel Dynamics

In other news, SVP Glenn Pushis sold 17,941 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.09, for a total value of $2,387,767.69. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 146,693 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,523,371.37. This represents a 10.90 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Chad Bickford sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.86, for a total transaction of $269,720.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 17,100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,306,106. The trade was a 10.47 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 28,591 shares of company stock worth $3,885,938. 6.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in STLD. Harbour Capital Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics by 133.7% during the fourth quarter. Harbour Capital Advisors LLC now owns 11,499 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,301,000 after acquiring an additional 6,579 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in Steel Dynamics by 9,465.5% in the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 18,844 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,376,000 after buying an additional 18,647 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in Steel Dynamics by 22.4% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,384,526 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $158,487,000 after buying an additional 253,802 shares during the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Steel Dynamics during the 3rd quarter worth about $15,880,000. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics by 9.4% in the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 230,922 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $29,904,000 after acquiring an additional 19,853 shares during the last quarter. 82.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Steel Dynamics Stock Performance

Shares of STLD stock traded down $1.26 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $122.01. The stock had a trading volume of 472,408 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,745,015. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $130.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is $126.54. The company has a quick ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 2.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The firm has a market cap of $18.58 billion, a PE ratio of 11.04 and a beta of 1.36. Steel Dynamics has a one year low of $104.60 and a one year high of $155.56.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The basic materials company reported $2.05 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.98 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $4.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.18 billion. Steel Dynamics had a return on equity of 19.82% and a net margin of 9.80%. Steel Dynamics’s quarterly revenue was down 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.47 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Steel Dynamics will post 10.09 EPS for the current year.

Steel Dynamics Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 10th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were issued a $0.46 dividend. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.51%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 31st. Steel Dynamics’s payout ratio is currently 16.65%.

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.