The Goldman Sachs Group Initiates Coverage on Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD)

The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) in a research note issued to investors on Monday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage set a “neutral” rating and a $155.00 price target on the basic materials company’s stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s target price suggests a potential upside of 8.24% from the company’s current price.

A number of other analysts have also weighed in on STLD. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Steel Dynamics from $129.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. UBS Group raised shares of Steel Dynamics from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $129.00 to $145.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Bank of America raised Steel Dynamics from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $140.00 to $155.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Steel Dynamics from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Steel Dynamics from $138.00 to $131.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Steel Dynamics has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $145.63.

Steel Dynamics Trading Down 1.1 %

NASDAQ STLD opened at $143.20 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 2.39, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The stock has a market cap of $21.80 billion, a PE ratio of 12.91 and a beta of 1.31. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $135.54 and its 200-day moving average price is $127.82. Steel Dynamics has a 12 month low of $104.60 and a 12 month 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 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.98 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $4.34 billion during 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 business earned $3.47 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Steel Dynamics will post 10.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Steel Dynamics

In other Steel Dynamics news, VP Chad Bickford sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.86, for a total value of $269,720.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 17,100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,306,106. This trade represents a 10.47 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Glenn Pushis sold 17,941 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 146,693 shares in the company, valued at $19,523,371.37. This trade represents a 10.90 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 28,591 shares of company stock valued at $3,885,938. 6.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Steel Dynamics

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in STLD. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Steel Dynamics in the first quarter valued at $337,000. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its holdings in Steel Dynamics by 172.2% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 24,220 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,590,000 after buying an additional 15,321 shares during the period. Cetera Advisors LLC lifted its position in Steel Dynamics by 189.9% in the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 9,273 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,375,000 after buying an additional 6,074 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Steel Dynamics by 27.0% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,050 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $265,000 after buying an additional 436 shares during the period. Finally, Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Steel Dynamics during the second quarter valued at about $41,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.41% of the company’s stock.

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.