Steel Dynamics

STLD on Nasdaq. Steel Dynamics sells steel and recycled metals to construction, automotive, and industrial customers. Market value $34.5bn.

Watch this stockFree. We tell you when something changes.

Price checks use the past 12 months to June 2026. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to December 2025.

Should I look at this?

Worth a closer look

Read what could go wrong

This is not advice. Check the numbers below.

Compare with another stock

Cash yield
past 12 months to June 2026
2.8%low

For every $100 of what the whole company costs, it produced $2.77 of spare cash in the past 12 months. A savings account pays about $4.

Price to profit
past 12 months to June 2026
18.6×full

You pay 18.6 years of operating profit for the business. The average large US company costs around 18.

Return on capital
five annual reports to December 2025
23.6%five-year median

Each dollar kept in the business earns 24 cents a year. Above 10 is good.

Quality score: 96 of 100. Price score: 62 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.

$241.04 a share, 71% above its 1-year low

Over the past year the price has ranged from $140.87 to $288.74.

Expected to report results Monday 19 Oct, after the market closes.

Dividend: 0.8% a year

Paid every year for at least 5 years

Prices from Monday’s close (5 October).

Five years of cash, in billions

1.2
3.6
1.9
-0.0
0.5
1.0
2021202220232024202512 monthsto Jun '26

Spare cash swings from quarter to quarter here: $956 million in the past 12 months, $502 million in the year to December 2025.

Revenue
$18.4bn$22.3bn$18.8bn$17.5bn$18.2bn
Operating margin
23.4%22.9%16.8%11.1%8.1%
Debt to equity
0.490.380.350.360.47
Shares outstanding
0.18bn0.16bn0.15bn0.15bn0.14bn

Health checks

  • Free cash flow positive4 of 5 years
  • Accounting looks honest (Beneish)Nothing unusual
  • Financial strength (Piotroski)6 of 9
  • Profit backed by cash (accruals)Yes
  • Debt0.47× equity
  • Revenue growth, five yearsStrong, 13.6% a year
  • Buying back its own sharesYes, 18% fewer since 2021

The quarter to June 2026

How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.

  • Sales: $6.1 billion last quarter, up 33% on a year ago.
  • Profit: $534 million, up 79% on a year ago.
  • It keeps 10 cents of each $1 of sales as operating profit, up from 8 cents a year earlier.
  • Spare cash over the past 12 months: $956 million. A year earlier it spent $107 million more than it brought in.
  • 3% fewer shares than a year ago. Each share owns a bit more of the company.
  • Debt is $3.6 billion more than cash, up from $3.3 billion a year ago.
  • Sales grew on a year ago in each of the last 4 quarters.
Sales by quarter
Sales by quarter
Quarter toAmount
September 2024$4.3bn
December 2024$3.9bn
March 2025$4.4bn
June 2025$4.6bn
September 2025$4.8bn
December 2025$4.4bn
March 2026$5.2bn
June 2026$6.1bn
Profit by quarter
Profit by quarter
Quarter toAmount
September 2024$318m
December 2024$207m
March 2025$217m
June 2025$299m
September 2025$404m
December 2025$266m
March 2026$403m
June 2026$534m

From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.

Dates

Next results (estimated)
19 October 2026
Last annual report (10-K)
27 February 2026
Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
27 October 2026

Who owns it

6 long-term investors we follow own it, unchanged from 6 last quarter. 1,020 funds in all.

Jun '25
Dec '25
Jun '26
Largest holders overall

From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.

Big holders and activists

4 investors own more than 5%.

From Schedule 13D and 13G filings: anyone owning more than 5% must file one.

What insiders did

No insider bought shares on the open market in the last 12 months. 5 sold $9m.

  • Anderson James Stanley
    Senior Vice President
    Sold
    Date
    5 June 2026
    Shares
    10,000
    Price
    $268.70
    Value
    $3m
  • Graham Christopher A
    Senior Vice President
    Sold
    Date
    13 May 2026
    Shares
    9,000
    Price
    $236.81
    Value
    $2m
  • Poinsatte Richard A
    Senior Vice President
    Sold
    Date
    12 May 2026
    Shares
    2,300
    Price
    $234.11
    Value
    $538,453
  • Alvarez Miguel
    Senior Vice President
    Sold
    Date
    23 April 2026
    Shares
    4,825
    Price
    $225.58
    Value
    $1m
  • Cornew Kenneth W.
    Director
    Sold
    Date
    23 April 2026
    Shares
    5,000
    Price
    $224.87
    Value
    $1m
  • Alvarez Miguel
    Senior Vice President
    Sold
    Date
    29 October 2025
    Shares
    8,251
    Price
    $162.79
    Value
    $1m

From Form 4 filings: insiders must report trades in their own company's shares within two days.

What could go wrong

Cheap for a reason is the question the numbers cannot answer.

Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.

What changed in the risks this year

Companies must list what could hurt them each year. These are the parts that changed since last year’s report.

  • Our aluminum operations depend on a core group of significant customers.

    Could happen
    We have a relatively concentrated group of aluminum customers. Most of these customers have one or more sizable sales agreements with us. If one or more of these customers experienced a prolonged period of adverse demand, depressed business activity or financial distress, if any of these customers breached or sought relief from its contractual obligations under its sales agreements with us or if any of these customer relationships otherwise ended or materiality deteriorated and such lost business was not successfully replaced, our aluminum operations financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows may be adversely affected.
    Read more
  • Unexpected equipment downtime or shutdowns may adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

    Already happened
    Interruptions in our production capabilities may adversely affect our production costs, products available for sale and earnings during the affected period. In addition to equipment failures, our facilities are subject to the risk of catastrophic loss due to unanticipated events such as fires, explosions or violent weather conditions. Our manufacturing processes are dependent upon critical pieces of equipment, such as our EAFs, continuous casters, aluminum melting, and rolling equipment, some of which are controlled by our information technology systems, as well as electrical equipment, such as transformers. This equipment may, on occasion, be out of service as a result of unanticipated failures or other events, including equipment failure, power surges, cybersecurity breaches or attacks or system failures. Further, we have experienced and may continue to experience inefficiencies during the start-up and ramp-up of new facilities, including those related to major equipment failures. We have experienced and in the future may experience plant shutdowns or periods of reduced production as a result of equipment failures or other events. Supply chain disruptions and labor shortages have and may continue to exacerbate the effects of equipment failures. Delayed delivery of our products to customers who require on-time delivery from us may cause customers to purchase alternative products, reschedule their own production, or incur other incremental costs. Customers may be able to pursue financial claims against us for their incremental costs, and we may incur costs to correct such problems in addition to any liability resulting from such claims. Interruptions may also harm our reputation among actual and potential customers, potentially resulting in a loss of business. These disruptions may adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.
    Read more
  • We may face risks associated with the implementation of our growth strategy.

    Could happen
    ● the risk of new product development and qualification, technology development or customer acquisition and penetration being more costly, time-consuming or difficult than expected;

Read it in the annual report

The deep dive

Everything above is arithmetic on public filings. The deep dive reads the last ten years of annual reports, the proxy statements, and the earnings calls, then argues the case the way Buffett, Klarman, and Hohn would, and checks every claim against the source.

  • What the business is worth, as a range, and the margin of safety at today’s price
  • Prices to start buying, buy, and buy hard
  • The three things that would make this a mistake
  • Every number footnoted to the filing it came from
Create a free account to run it

Your first deep dive is free.

What a finished deep dive looks like

Not advice. Numbers on this page come from SEC filings and are updated each night; prices are updated again after the US market closes. The five-year figures are rounded.