State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Trims Holdings in Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D reduced its holdings in shares of Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) by 38.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 55,760 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 34,468 shares during the quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Steel Dynamics were worth $7,221,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in STLD. Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Steel Dynamics by 27.0% during the 4th quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 3,942 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $466,000 after buying an additional 837 shares during the last quarter. Principal Securities Inc. bought a new position in Steel Dynamics during the fourth quarter worth $146,000. Jump Financial LLC bought a new position in Steel Dynamics during the fourth quarter worth $271,000. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. lifted its stake in Steel Dynamics by 9.6% during the fourth quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 3,101 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $366,000 after purchasing an additional 272 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in Steel Dynamics by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 17,321 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,046,000 after purchasing an additional 278 shares during the last quarter. 82.41% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on STLD. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Steel Dynamics from $134.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on Steel Dynamics from $150.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 26th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Steel Dynamics from $140.00 to $135.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Steel Dynamics from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $120.00 to $131.00 in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Steel Dynamics in a research report on Monday, May 20th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $150.00 target price on the stock. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Steel Dynamics has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $143.43.

Steel Dynamics Price Performance

Shares of STLD opened at $112.84 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.75 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 2.35. Steel Dynamics, Inc. has a one year low of $95.53 and a one year high of $151.34. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $121.20 and its 200-day moving average is $129.54.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 17th. The basic materials company reported $2.72 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.67 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $4.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.43 billion. Steel Dynamics had a return on equity of 22.89% and a net margin of 11.10%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 8.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $4.81 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Steel Dynamics, Inc. will post 10.81 EPS for the current year.

Steel Dynamics Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.46 per share. This represents a $1.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. Steel Dynamics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 12.64%.

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.