Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) to Buyback $1.50 billion in Outstanding Shares

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) announced that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Monday, February 24th, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $1.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the basic materials company to buy up to 7.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

STLD has been the subject of several research reports. Citigroup cut their price target on Steel Dynamics from $160.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $149.00 price target (up previously from $145.00) on shares of Steel Dynamics in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. StockNews.com raised Steel Dynamics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Steel Dynamics from $134.00 to $132.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, KeyCorp raised Steel Dynamics from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $155.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $146.22.

Steel Dynamics Trading Up 1.9 %

Shares of STLD stock opened at $133.15 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $124.01 and a 200 day moving average price of $126.98. Steel Dynamics has a twelve month low of $104.60 and a twelve month high of $155.56. The company has a market capitalization of $20.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.59, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a current ratio of 2.53, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The basic materials company reported $1.36 earnings per share 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 posted $2.61 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Steel Dynamics will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Steel Dynamics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a $0.50 dividend. This is a boost from Steel Dynamics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.46. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.50%. Steel Dynamics’s payout ratio is 18.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Steel Dynamics

In other Steel Dynamics news, SVP Glenn Pushis sold 23,649 shares of Steel Dynamics stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.67, for a total value of $3,184,810.83. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 122,140 shares in the company, valued at $16,448,593.80. The trade was a 16.22 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 6.00% of the stock is owned by company 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.