ArcelorMittal S.A. (NYSE:MT) Raises Dividend to $0.28 Per Share

ArcelorMittal S.A. (NYSE:MT) declared a semi-annual dividend on Monday, March 17th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 13th will be given a dividend of 0.275 per share by the basic materials company on Wednesday, December 3rd. This represents a yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 12th. This is a 29.1% increase from ArcelorMittal’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.21.

ArcelorMittal has raised its dividend payment by an average of 18.6% per year over the last three years. ArcelorMittal has a payout ratio of 9.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect ArcelorMittal to earn $5.14 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.50 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 9.7%.

ArcelorMittal Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of ArcelorMittal stock traded down $0.21 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $32.01. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,201,628 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,784,316. ArcelorMittal has a 1-year low of $20.52 and a 1-year high of $34.90. The company has a quick ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.40, a PEG ratio of 0.14 and a beta of 1.79. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $26.81 and a 200-day simple moving average of $25.17.

ArcelorMittal (NYSE:MT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $0.52 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.61 by ($0.09). ArcelorMittal had a return on equity of 4.31% and a net margin of 2.14%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that ArcelorMittal will post 3.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of ArcelorMittal from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, ArcelorMittal currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $31.17.

ArcelorMittal Company Profile

ArcelorMittal SA, together with its subsidiaries, operates as integrated steel and mining companies in the United States, Europe, and internationally. It offers semi-finished flat products, including slabs; finished flat products comprising plates, hot- and cold-rolled coils and sheets, hot-dipped and electro-galvanized coils and sheets, tinplate, and color coated coils and sheets; semi-finished long products, such as blooms and billets; finished long products consisting of bars, wire-rods, structural sections, rails, sheet piles, and wire-products; and seamless and welded pipes and tubes.